AN : Once again, Standard Disclaimers apply. All errors are mine, no betas involved unfortunately.
Some of the dialogues are lifted verbatim from the show, but only where I needed to make some additions or changes. My thrust is more on narration than dialogues anyways.
I was pleasantly surprised that so many of you are interested in this story. Special thanks to all those who left reviews and kind words of encouragement. I'm sorry I won't be able to respond to everyone here (FF's restrictions I believe), but if you leave me a PM, I would definitely get back to you. Some of you have already come up with your theories, but I plan to reveal almost everything by the 'Chuck Vs the Truth' episode. I'm curious however, did anyone catch the minor crossover with Numb3rs in the last chapter? :-)
Chapter 3 : Chuck Versus the Helicopter
21 September 2007
Chuck woke up early next morning from his restless slumber at the sound of his alarm going off. As per his daily routine, he meditated for about twenty minutes, going through all his memories from the day before. Using the technique his father had taught him when he was almost nine, he started the process of discarding the inconsequential ones. The way his sister had explained him many years later, the trick worked by ensuring the synaptic connections from his long term memory were sufficiently weakened and overwritten by a forced recall of a set of his most important memories daily. This process had been a blessing during his childhood, when he had discovered he was able to retrieve almost every single thing that had happened to him after that accident in his father's lab. According to Ellie, his brain had a unique chemical makeup, which coupled with that 'accident', had established a direct connection between his short term and long term memory connections and made it almost impossible for him to 'forget' anything thereon. Perfect memory recall had been a myth until Charles Bartowski came along and his father had been damn proud of the fact that his son was so special. His eight year old self hadn't really agreed with his dad, the cons far outweighing the pros in his mind. He was lucky his father had paid enough attention and talked to him after a particularly bad nightmare, once his mother left them. His father was truly brilliant and had come up with this idea to suppress unwanted memories that somehow worked only for Chuck.
Once he came out of his trance, he changed into his jogging clothes all the while thinking about the accident that started him on the path to where he was today. His father's basement lab in their Encino home was strictly off-limits to his children, but Chuck had always been a curious child and one day, while his father was away, Chuck found himself in front of his dad's computer. Something tickled at the back of his mind, insisting that the memory was somehow associated with one of his recent ones. Chuck had long repressed that particularly memory and what had followed, but it was not like any of his long term memories were truly forgotten. All he needed to do was think about the right trigger and the association would unravel the once forgotten memory and it would come rushing back to him. It took him only a few moments to remember it and he realized why that memory seemed so important now. The 'accident' had actually been his young brain being exposed to a series of images on his dad's computer and it was disturbingly similar to the events on the night of his most recent birthday, when Bryce had sent him the link to the Intersect. No wonder his Mom had been royally pissed at his Dad. Ellie and him had witnessed their parent's first ever fight in the presence of their children. His Mom had left them barely a few weeks later.
It gave him pause when he thought about the obvious ramifications of his discovery. His father had clearly been involved in some fashion with the Subliminal Data Retention project seventeen years back and his mother must have known about the dangers involved at some level. Why else would they have fought? Not for the first time, he wished his father hadn't been so hush hush about his activities and had given him or Ellie at least some indication about the actual nature of his work. But this didn't tell him if his father had been working on the government sanctioned project or if he was an independent researcher doing his own thing. There was no way to know unless Stephen Bartowski decided to come out of whatever hole he had disappeared into eleven years back. Frankly speaking, Chuck wasn't sure if he was really interested in knowing the truth after all these years. As far as Ellie and him were concerned, his father had made his choice to walk out on them and they were not going to bother waiting for him to come back. He debated for a few moments if he should let the CIA and the NSA know about this tidbit, but found no reason to trust them yet with something this important. He wanted to keep a few aces close to his chest, there was no telling what would happen over the next few weeks.
He quickly and efficiently packed his backpack and his gear and decided to go for his morning run anyways. The two government agents would still be here once he came back, they had never told him the exact time he was supposed to leave with them today after all. He started his coffee machine and went over to his sister's place to see if Devon and Ellie were ready. Both had morning shifts, but that never stopped them from continuing with their routine before, so he was hopeful. It would be nice to have this last bit of normalcy in his life, before he had to give in to all the sudden changes that were imposed upon him by the fates.
Ellie told him they would join him in ten minutes, so he went back and poured three cups of coffee for himself and Agents Walker and Casey. He was sure the two of them would be outside somewhere keeping a watch on him. And he was right, the nondescript grey sedan with tinted windows was parked right across the road from his apartment's main entrance. Chuck knocked on the passenger window and waited patiently until it rolled down, "Good morning Agents. I brought you coffee in case you are interested. I'm going out for my daily run with Ellie and Devon and figured you would like to know about my whereabouts, in case you wanted to follow me."
Casey and Sarah perked up at the mention of coffee and thanked him. Sarah wanted to join them on their morning run, but Casey nixed the idea saying Ellie and Devon would find it suspicious and offered to go instead. Chuck smiled, "I thought that would be the case, so I brought you a change of clothes. The t-shirt would be a little tight, but I think you can make do for a day." Casey changed into Chuck's t-shirt and track pants in the backseat of the car while Chuck waited for Ellie and Devon at the gate.
Chuck kept a light conversation going with Ellie and Devon during their run. With Casey following them within hearing distance, he wanted to steer clear of anything serious. Casey was impressed. All three of them had clocked an average of under six minutes per mile, it looked like the Bartowskis and Woodcomb were die-hard fitness enthusiasts. Another point in favor of their mark, he was glad to know Charles Bartowski was not your everyday average geek. He revised his opinion further up, when they went to the local gym for their daily workout. It took some finagling on his part, but he managed to convince the gym owner that he was planning to be a member and wanted to give today a trial run. Even though he believed Bartowski was not dumb enough to reveal anything from yesterday to his family, he would not be taking any chances. He wanted to keep a close eye on his target and would intervene with extreme prejudice in case Bartowski went back on his word.
Honestly speaking, he had been taken by complete surprise at the way everything went down yesterday. He could agree to himself now, he had made a mistake in assuming whatever information the NSA was able to dig up from Bartowski's online history was all there was to the person. It had been a rude shock to find an assertive and confident young man instead of the loser geek image he had constructed in his mind for Charles Bartowski. He hadn't lied to Walker, if he could, he would have preferred to pick him up and dump him in some dark hole where he wouldn't ever see the daylight again. But Bartowski had played them all perfectly. He used the opportunity General Stanfield presented and twisted it to his benefit within no time. Strings had been pulled at the highest level and the incident he had tried so hard to keep a tight lid on, had spiraled out of their control and been disclosed to the higher-ups. He would not want to be in Beckman's or Graham's shoes right now. And then, Bartowski had the gall to rebuke him for the way he had tried to apprehend him, but ultimately had also managed to smooth over the incident with the help of his FBI friends. That had definitely rankled him on a professional front.
He hoped dearly that the NSA scientists would be able to remove the Intersect secrets from Bartowski's head and everyone could move on with their lives. Bartowski was too headstrong and independent minded to be handled like a normal asset. Provided that their target declined to work for the government of course; if he agreed instead, Casey was apprehensive there would be too many conflicts in their near future for any smooth operation. Add the CIA 'Enforcer' to the mix and he was sure this assignment would be rocky to say the least, but then that's what made it so interesting too. Sighing, he finished his workout and followed Bartowski and others to their home in Walker's car.
He chuckled when Walker wrinkled her nose at the stink emanating from his body, "Live with it, Walker. I had no choice but to follow Bartowski to the gym. Those three can sure work up a sweat. Bet you didn't mind seeing him all sweaty and dripping, huh?"
Sarah sent him a glare and refused to dignify his comments with a response. She was hungry and was thinking about stopping somewhere for breakfast, but they would have to be in close range of Chuck's house, if they wanted to pick up the signal from the audio bugs Casey had installed yesterday. Breakfast could wait for a while until they reached their destination. She had discussed the options with Casey today morning and they had agreed to use a motel in Santa Monica for their briefing with the bosses. From there, they would either go to Sarah's off grid safehouse in Anaheim or the one setup by Casey in San Diego, depending on the hospital they would need to take Chuck to. It took about an hour for Chuck to finally get ready and say his goodbyes to his family and roommate. He had waited until Ellie and Devon left for the hospital and joined the two agents in their car, appearing as if he was actually going out on a backpacking trip. She had to hand it to him though, he hadn't deviated from the plan one bit and there was no reason for any suspicions at all. He had promised to co-operate and was staying true to his word.
She hoped dearly he would agree to work for the government and her assignment would be extended. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew it was not just the prospect of seeing the Intersect in action that had her hopes up, but also a chance to figure out what this mystery about Charles Bartowski was and why he was so special. She refused to acknowledge in any way that she just craved his company and wanted more opportunities to get to know him personally.
It didn't take them long to reach their first destination and as soon as they had confirmed the room was secure, Chuck had opened his lunchbox filled with chocolate chip pancakes and various assortment of fruits. She laughed at the expression on Casey's face, it was a cross between being grateful and annoyed, but was not so sure if they had been all alone, she herself wouldn't have just kissed Chuck thoroughly for being so thoughtful. This man had continued to worm his way through her heart and she was not so sure if staying on this assignment was such a good idea anymore.
At noon sharp, Chuck and the agents were found huddled in front of Casey's laptop, waiting for Beckman and Graham to come online and discuss Chuck's future with the CIA and the NSA. It had been obvious that General Beckman was not used to being cordial to a lowly civilian, but Chuck had to give her points for at least trying to make a decent attempt. If he had been a naive citizen without his connections, he was sure these people would have eaten him alive. He was, however, quite impressed by Graham's direct and honest behavior. The CIA director had actually started with an apology, taking full responsibility for Larkin's mistakes, but continued that he was very surprised Chuck was not only able to sustain the download of the entire Intersect database in his head, but was also able to use the information from his flashes to save so many lives last night. He had made no bones about his desire for Chuck to work for them and promised Chuck a generous compensation in exchange for his help to the government. The pitch was almost perfect with all the right words about duty, honor and commitment to his country included in it as well as the chance to do something worthwhile for the Greater Good. Beckman had then jumped in, assuring him he would be welcome to come work for the NSA, in case he had any reservations working for the CIA. She just couldn't resist taking a dig at the CIA's trustworthiness while she was at it. Graham had barely twitched at the accusation, his face completely impassive and asked her if there was any progress in the investigation of NSA's top-secret compression program being leaked to Larkin.
Chuck was unimpressed with Beckman so far though and voiced his concerns, "Sorry General, I am not sure if I want to commit to anything straight away. From what Director Graham and Agent Walker have explained so far, we are in completely uncharted territory and I am very lucky I am not a brain-dead vegetable right now. I think we should wait until I get a clear bill of health from your doctors before we talk about my future job prospects. Of course, if it seems that my health would be deteriorating anyways and there is nothing your scientists can do to take out this information from my head, I don't see why I can't help you out until I'm no longer fit to do so. Please note that I'm not saying no to your excellent offer, I just want to make sure I have all the options available to me. And, uh, I would prefer to stay independent of either of your agencies. You said it yourself, this is a joint project between the CIA and the NSA and it wouldn't be fair if I joined one of you officially leaving the other hanging. I think this is the best possible compromise in our current situation, don't you?"
Beckman was clearly displeased, but Graham had agreed with his reasoning readily. Beckman then outlined her plan to send one of her best scientists to their safehouse within two weeks, as soon as they finished doing a thorough vetting of their personnel from the Intersect team. In the meanwhile, they would be moving to another safehouse in the San Diego area closer to the Navy hospital in Camp Pendleton. The two agents would then come up with an alias and an appropriate cover story for Chuck, while he underwent a battery of tests including the MRIs, fMRIs, EEG, MEG scans and whatnot. All in all, Chuck thought privately, his immediate future would be filled with needles and syringes and electrodes. God! How he hated pointy objects!
Chuck was quite taken with the location of Casey's safehouse. He had hoped the house would be at least comfortable, but it turned out to be quite cozy and warm, somehow incongruous with the gruff and cold personality Casey projected. And it was near the Coronado beach, which was even better. They spent the rest of the day coming up with the necessary cover for Chuck's medical tests. When Sarah jokingly asked him if he would like to come up with his own alias, Chuck immediately suggested 'Charles Carmichael', saying he had always wanted to use that one.
22 September 2007
Next morning, once they finished their daily run, Chuck had lagged behind waiting to see the sun rise fully. This was a part of his morning routine he absolutely loved. He was deep in his thoughts when Sarah came to stand beside him and nudged his shoulder, "Penny for your thoughts?"
Chuck gave her a lopsided half-smile and answered, "I was just thinking about the latest curveball life has thrown at me. It feels like my entire life has been leading inexorably towards this event and all I have been doing after Stanford is trying to run away from it. But it has now finally caught up with me no thanks to Bryce. I just don't understand, why would he chose to do this after all these years?"
Her eyes were apologetic as she shrugged helplessly, "I don't really have an answer to that Chuck. We will never know what he was thinking. But the point is, things are the way they are. Your life has been turned upside down because of his meddling and now you have a major decision to make by the end of our stay here. From the little time that I have known you, you seem to be a sincere, decent and courageous person, who should never have been put in this position. Whatever your final decision may be, you can count on me to support you and be there for you. Trust me, Chuck."
Chuck peered into her eyes with such intensity that Sarah was unable to look away from the hypnotic hold he seemed to have over her. After an indeterminate passage of time, he broke his stare and gazed at the waves washing over their feet and snorted, "Trust. Such a simple word, bandied about so easily, but one that carries so much hold on our day to day lives. I was a very trusting person once, you know. I trusted my mom and dad to be always there for me and Ellie, but they abandoned us both when we were kids. At Stanford, I trusted Bryce and thought we would be best friends forever. I trusted Jill with my heart, thinking we would love each other for all eternity. And then they went and stabbed me in my back."
He sighed and continued, "I'm not that naive and gullible person anymore, Sarah. You and Casey must be the best from your agencies, why else would you two be hand-picked for this most critical and sensitive assignment? Why else would you be reporting directly to the directors of the CIA and the NSA. So, I do trust you and Casey, but only to do what is best for your job, your mission. Put yourself in my shoes for a moment, I don't think I can really trust you two to make a decision that is in my best interests. We may quite possibly reach that point in the near future, depending upon how our friendship flourishes. But until then, I will be using the old Regan policy to trust, but verify whatever you guys tell me. Anything I say otherwise now, would be just empty platitudes and I don't want to insult either of you by doing that."
Sarah was saddened by his speech and in some corner of her heart it stung that this amazing and kind and genuine person didn't have enough faith in her. Her job required her to be manipulative, deceitful and dishonest all the time and she was one of the best in the company. Considering the way she had lied to him since they met, she couldn't really fault him for that. What did he really know about her to place that kind of trust in her? She had meant it though. He would need at least one person in his corner in this world of shadows, darkness and secrecy that he had been thrown in blindfolded. She would be that person for him and she told him so, "I understand where you are coming from Chuck, you don't know me well enough for that. But I can promise you one thing - irrespective of what happens, I will protect you from any harm. I hope you can trust me on that."
Chuck gave her a blinding smile and reached out to squeeze her hand warmly, "Thank you Sarah, I appreciate that a lot. But you don't have to worry too much about my well-being. I have an insurance policy so to speak, and you should trust me on that." He finished with an enigmatic smile.
Sarah wanted to know badly what he was talking about, but was pretty sure he wouldn't tell her yet and she let the matter drop. Giving him a small smile, she asked, "Speaking of your protection, do you want to go spar for a bit? I have heard you are quite the expert in hand to hand combat. Maybe, we can test your skills and competence and see how you fare against a professional?"
Chuck narrowed his eyes for a moment, but accepted the challenge, "Oh, you're on, Agent Walker."
Back at the house, they went to the hidden basement door in the garage and she took this opportunity to go at him full blast. But after twenty minutes of an intricate dance involving throws and kicks and punches, she came to the same conclusion as before. Chuck was extremely adept at defending himself and what happened in his apartment two days back was not a fluke at all. He made full use of the reach provided by his longer limbs and with his stamina and endurance, he could afford to be defensive, wait for his opponent to tire out and get sloppy. She wasn't sure how good he was at offense though. So far, he had not made a move to land a single hit on her. Just when she was getting frustrated at his lack of attacking, he spotted an opening in her stance and swept her feet from below her, landing her on her ass. She was shocked how easily he had read her moves and exploited a small vulnerability. His primary strategy seemed to be to defend extensively until his opponent tired out and then use his lightning fast reflexes and long reach to deliver the final debilitating blow.
As she took his hand to stand up, she saw that Chuck was looking at her with narrowed eyes once again, "It was you, wasn't it? You were the black clad ninja robber who broke into my house day before and tried to steal my computer. You have the same fighting style!" Sarah blinked once, twice and then stuttered a bit, not sure how to respond, because he was absolutely right. Unexpectedly, Chuck started to laugh and kept laughing so hard that he had to hold his stomach and sit down wheezing. And just like that, Sarah found herself laughing and giggling along with him at the ridiculousness of it all.
1 October 2007
For the last ten days, the three of them had established an easy routine. They would start their days with a run on the beach, followed by a light workout later in the basement of Casey's garage. Casey had heard from Walker about how proficient Bartowski was in defending himself in unarmed combat and he wanted to see it for himself. On their second day here, he went full throttle at Chuck, not bothering to pull any punches. If Bartowski was able to stand one of CIA's best, he could definitely withstand whatever Casey had to offer. It wasn't often that Casey was impressed and frustrated at the same time, this kid could handle himself, alright. He was glad Bartowski was no pushover, but that would make him equally stubborn when facing danger and would most likely try to assist his handlers, rather than step back and let them do their job of protecting him. He had no doubts if Bartowski would take up the offer of working with them. From what he had observed so far, Charles Bartowski was a man of honor and integrity and even though he hadn't made anything of his life after getting kicked out of Stanford, he couldn't see the kid turning down such a great opportunity to help out his country and go back instead to his substandard and meaningless life. And Walker had agreed with his conclusions. They would need to impress upon the nerd that no matter how capable he was of looking out for himself and others, the secrets in his head made Bartowski the most valuable asset in the current intelligence setup. If he died before the NSA was able to rebuild the Intersect, all those secrets would be lost forever, following Bartowski to an early grave. It was his duty and responsibility to let the two professionals do their job and keep him safe.
On the very last day of their stay, Casey had once again setup a video call with his superiors at noon and they had discussed Bartowski's test results. Beckman and Graham were both very satisfied to learn that there had been no side effects due to the huge amount of data being dumped into Chuck's brain. His hand-eye co-ordination was as sharp as ever and Casey had also confirmed he had tested the subject's proficiency in firearms. Chuck was a crack shot, not as good as him, but he definitely gave Walker a run for her money.
When Graham asked Chuck when and why he had learnt Taekwondo and shooting so well, Chuck replied nonchalantly, "I started learning self-defense back at Stanford, when one of my friends got me interested into it and I kept up the practice over the years. As for my shooting skills, it's something I thought would be helpful during my travels over the last five years in the seedier parts of the third world countries. While I'm curious to know firsthand about the local culture of the places I visit, a lone wealthy American in those parts of the town often attracts unwanted attention and encourages the shady elements to try something unwise. I always keep at least a knife or a blade with me when traveling, just in case."
Graham had simply nodded and left it at that. Beckman then informed them about the impending visit of one of their top scientist who had worked on the encoding process for the Intersect and warned Agents Casey and Walker to ensure that Chuck's identity would not be compromised under any circumstances. Dr. Jonas Zarnow had only been told that they had found a new and promising test candidate for the Intersect Project and had already been shown a number of secret files encoded in random images. He was to determine how high the subject's retention levels were and if there was a way to remove the data from his brain later on. Any equipment or supplies he needed for his examination, the doctor was told would be transported to the destination as required.
Chuck had his suspicions if the two directors would really put that much effort into removing this classified information from his brain, now that his medical results had proved his brain had adapted to the Intersect seamlessly, but he held his tongue and decided to adopt a wait and watch approach. He had already committed to co-operate with the two agencies and give his best efforts for the job. He was able to convince Beckman and Graham that the full benefits of having a Human Intersect could only be tested in the field, rather than behind four padded walls. He didn't mind being treated as a guinea-pig by the Intersect project scientists and would provide them with a biweekly feedback of his brain activities so they could continue to study and enhance the Intersect encoding. His only condition being that he be allowed to go through the AI program that mined the huge data and see if he could make some improvements to the code. After all, his specialization at Stanford was Artificial Intelligence and it would be a shame to let that knowledge go waste. He offered his additional services free of cost to the NSA, stating that he rarely got the opportunity to dabble in his core area of expertise anymore. Depending upon how successful he was in his endeavors, it was doubtful the CIA or the NSA would ever let him go. But he didn't want to think too much about the future right now.
Later that evening, Casey had setup a video screen in the basement where Chuck would stay hidden away from the NSA doctor while Zarnow would be setting up his testing equipment in one of the room upstairs. There would be no face to face contact between Chuck and Zarnow. The retention test went brilliantly, Chuck was able to identify 100 percent of the encoded secrets within the innocuous images, audio and video files Zarnow had subjected him to during the hour long test. Chuck had wondered if he would be able to instantly recall any of the information stored in his subconscious on his own, but the problem was that there were too many of these images and he needed to know the right trigger in order to unravel their secrets. He had tried flashing on anything on Casey or Sarah in the last ten days, but the only thing he was sure of was that their headshots were not the right triggers. There was the one time he had seen Sarah wear a sapphire ring while going out to shop for groceries and it had triggered a video recording where she had shot and killed two men, but that was it. He was learning that the Intersect was not as simple as he had originally imagined. Whoever had designed these triggers had gone to great lengths to make them as random as possible.
Dr. Zarnow was very excited and had pleaded with the two agents to meet this phenomenal candidate, but was denied an audience. He had gone along with their explanation that they needed to maintain the secrecy for now, but he would be able to meet with the subject in person back in Maryland once they were able to come up with a way to remove these secrets from the subject's brain. The plan was to train the recruit with basic skills and then upload the skills and cover identity in his brain specific to the missions he would be sent on.
Internally, he was fuming though. Everyone in the intelligence community worth their salt had known about the destruction of the Intersect compound and word had reached him through his contacts that Agent Larkin had managed to send out the entire Intersect database to someone on the West Coast. And suddenly after years of searching for the right candidate, the NSA and the CIA were able to land him not two weeks after the sabotage incident? He didn't believe in coincidences and had included ten triggers in the hour long test that were so highly classified that the NSA would never even think about disclosing them to a recruit. And this mysterious person had been able to recall them all without breaking a sweat! How extraordinary! This must surely be the person who ended up with the entire Intersect. If this person was simply using a computer program to mine through the database, he most definitely would have missed at least two of the ten triggers. No, this person was not only the holy grail Orion and others like him had been looking for so long, but he had also ended up somehow with all the national secrets in his head, courtesy of Larkin.
He could only imagine the price he would be paid for delivering such a high valued person of interest to his Chinese and North Korean friends. This person would be his retirement package and he could finally be free of the US government's employ, vanishing off the grid on a nice and warm beach somewhere remote, enjoying the rest of his life. But first he had some calls to make and plans to execute so that everyone thinks him dead and no one would suspect him. He might as well kidnap one of these agents and deliver them to his benefactors. Everyone would think the agent got greedy, kidnapped the asset after killing any witnesses and defected to the enemy. Yes, the female agent would fit in nicely in his plans. Casey was known to be a staunch patriot, whereas Agent Walker had been a longtime partner of Agent Larkin. Everyone would suspect her immediately and he would be home free at last. At times, he surprised even himself with how devious he could be!
Chuck and Sarah had come up with a cover story for their trip and to explain their extra companion. They had been to the Amazon over the last ten days where they met a kindred spirit in John Casey, an ex-marine, and they had hit it off. Casey was tired of living a lonely and nomadic life and was looking forward to return home and settle down for a bit. So, Chuck had offered to put in a good word for him with Big Mike to help Casey find a job and some stability while he adjusted to being back in civilization.
Originally, Casey was to take up the job of a salesman at the BuyMore as part of his cover, but Chuck had quickly pointed out the flaw in that plan, "Casey, not that I wouldn't mind seeing you join the Green shirts, but don't you think your time would be better served at the Nerd Herd instead? Your primary reason of getting a job at the BuyMore is to keep an eye on me. So what happens when I am sent out on an install? If you are on the technical staff like me, no one will find it suspicious if I was to take the newbie under my wing and you accompany me whenever I go out."
Casey could see the merit in his argument, but grumbled something under his breath.
Chuck asked, "What was that Casey? Speak up clearly, I couldn't hear you the first time."
Casey growled, "I said, I'm not sure if I can pass myself off as a nerd, Bartowski!"
Chuck snorted in disbelief, "Ha! You're kidding me, right? Oh, come on! You are NSA, Casey. That's like Nerds heaven! You guys are the biggest employer of nerds in America. Back in college, we used to jokingly call it the 'Nerd Squadron of America', you know. I'm pretty sure you must have been trained by the SID or the SCS units. Don't fret, whatever skills you lack or need a refresher for, I will train you on the job and bring you up to speed in no time. It would be a much better use of your time than making you sell oven grills to California's yuppies."
Casey's eyes had gone wide at the casual mention of the two highly classified NSA Directorates, but he chalked it off to the knowledge Bartowski must have gleaned from the Intersect. Damn! He would need to be on his toes all the time around this guy.
Sarah, meanwhile, had come up with a simple explanation for her reason to be hanging around in Burbank. Her and Chuck had felt a spark between them and they would like to explore this connection further, but wanted to take things slowly because of their respective hangups from their past relationships. She had a decent amount in savings on account of her previous job and would be working odd jobs temporarily, until she decided upon a new direction for her career. Chuck would introduce them to his family and friends tomorrow night at the welcome home dinner at Ellie's place. Casey would then casually slip in how grateful he was for the warm welcome he received and wished he could find a place for himself closer to his new-found friends. The NSA had already arranged for the residence next door to be available and Chuck would jump in with the suggestion that Casey better snag the apartment before it was off the market.
2 October 2007
They started their journey home early next morning after a light breakfast and reached LA a little after two hours. They had barely pulled up in front of Sarah's hotel, when Casey got a call informing them that the NSA scientist was assassinated in a bomb blast just off of Irvine in the Crystal Cove state park. Casey and Sarah were both shocked at hearing the terrible news and scrambled back to the location of the blast, leaving Chuck to go home alone. Chuck had tried to accompany them, but his suggestion was shot down by both agents as they feared whomever killed Zarnow, must be looking for Chuck and would probably be lurking around the blast site hoping to catch a glimpse of the parties involved. They didn't want to make the killer's job any easier and exhorted Chuck to go straight to his apartment and be on alert for anything suspicious.
Chuck prepared himself for the onslaught of Ellie-joy as he rang the bell of her apartment. Ellie pulled the door open with a bang and embraced him tightly letting out a loud squeal. Chuck smiled through his discomfort, "Ah, home sweet home!"
Ellie and Devon had taken the day off so they could be home to welcome Chuck and his new friends. But seeing him alone, Ellie looked at him questioningly. Chuck replied, "Sarah and John are settling in at their hotels. They would be joining us for dinner instead of lunch. Hope you don't mind, Ellie?"
Ellie shook her head, "No, no. That's alright. Come on, I want to hear all about your trip."
Morgan and Anna greeted him enthusiastically as well. Chuck gave them a basic rundown of the cover story him and Sarah had come up with and begged off further interrogation saying he would like to eat a few sandwiches as he was very hungry. Ellie relented and went off to the kitchen. Anna and Morgan had already had their lunch, so they decided to leave for their shifts and Chuck assured them he would join them as soon as he finished eating. He was too wired to just lie down or take a nap.
As he sat down down at the table, Chuck noticed a copy of today's newspaper lying open. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of Bryce's handsome face looking out at him from one of the middle pages. Ellie must have been reading the story earlier, he mused. He was lost in his thoughts for a while when Ellie came back and looked over his shoulder at what had grabbed his attention.
She squeezed his shoulder lightly in support, "Are you gonna be okay, Chuck?"
Chuck gave a sad sigh, "I don't know, sis. I just don't know! I told you before, I forgave him for Stanford a long time ago. I am just disappointed we never got a chance for closure. I always found it hard to stay mad at him for his meddling. Besides, he did save my life back then, you know?"
Ellie gave him a half-smile, "Yeah, I know. And I would be forever grateful to him for that. That is how you should remember him as well, Chuck. At the end of the day, for all his faults, he was a good friend. And despite how sanctimonious he came across, he was just trying to look out for you."
Chuck smiled sadly, "Yeah, you are right Ellie. Thanks."
Back at the Crystal Cove park, Sarah and Casey were supervising the collection of evidence with an eagle eye. The DOD investigators had taken over from the local FBI and were ordered that the two Agents be allowed full access to the investigation, no questions asked. Casey was updating Beckman with his findings and concerns regarding the missing body of Dr. Zarnow, when Sarah noticed a burnt mobile phone lying under some shrapnel off the road. Quickly looking around to ensure no one was paying her any attention, she pocketed it stealthily and walked over to Casey. If what she suspected was true, Chuck would be in terrible danger and she had to make her way to Echo Park as fast as she could.
Casey had seen Walker duck out of the corner of his eyes and was sure he saw her palm something. He waited to hear about her findings, but was disappointed when she said she had found nothing. Casey was furious at her, but controlled his facial reactions so as to give nothing away. If Walker wanted to play games with him, he would happily oblige and she would be sorry she ever met him in the first place. He was still thinking about the entire incident, trying to find motives and the possible leak, when he shuddered as a sudden thought took root in his mind. No one but Beckman, Graham and the doctor himself knew about this trip. And the doctor was in no way aware of the actual reason for his visit. So why then, would somebody want to kill Zarnow? He debated if there could have been a leak either from Graham's or Beckman's offices, but discarded the thought instantly. Beckman and Graham had gone to great lengths to keep this entire operation under wraps. That meant only one other person who had the means and the motive to kill the doctor.
Of course! How could they all have been so stupid! Agent Sarah Walker of the CIA was a ghost and changed identities as easily as she changed clothes. The file Graham had provided them on her was so heavily redacted, it was worse than useless. The NSA had dug up some details and Beckman was shocked to learn that Larkin and Walker were partners for almost eighteen months before he dropped off the grid and went rogue. Not only that, the two were also involved personally. Graham had soothed her concerns stating firmly that Agent Walker's integrity had never been in question. And after there had been unexpected problems in her last mission, they had even launched an independent internal investigation and she had been cleared of any misgivings by none other than Special Agent Eric Nelson of the OIG office. Beckman had been mollified at that, everyone in the intelligence setup knew about the exploits and reputation of this detective. If Walker had come up smelling of roses after an inquiry by Nelson himself, she was ready to give her the benefit of the doubt and told Casey so herself. Casey had heard about the legendary Nelson and his hundred percent success rate, so he too had accepted Walker's status at face value.
But Nelson had never been asked to investigate Larkin and his disappearance. Walker must have been in cahoots with Larkin from the beginning. They had planned well, he had to give them that. Larkin going off grid six months back and Walker playing the part of the shocked and betrayed girlfriend. She must have convinced Graham of her innocence somehow and got herself assigned to this mission under the guise of bringing down Larkin. Only for their plans to hit a bump when Casey shot Larkin dead instead. But Walker had improvised quickly. All this while, he had thought Walker had a soft spot for Bartowski for some reason, but it was clear that she was only playing everyone! Larkin was always supposed to send the intel to his old college buddy, a civilian whom no-one would suspect of anything and Walker would approach Chuck with the blessings of her bosses, bat her eyes at him and get the intel from him. They had probably quite a few buyers lined up already. But unfortunately for her, Bartowski had ended up watching those files and became the unintended host of all the government secrets, whereas the computer itself had been destroyed. So instead of selling the intel, she must have decided to sell Bartowski to her affiliates! Killing the doctor meant she was not leaving any witnesses behind and Casey would be her next target now.
He was so angry at himself for overlooking such an important possibility and now he was playing catch-up. Oh, Walker was going to pay and pay dearly for her treachery! He considered calling Bartowski and warning him about Walker's intentions on phone, but decided not to. If Bartowski confronted Walker as he was most likely to, Walker would be forced to reveal her hand and that could have deadly consequences for Bartowski and his family. No, it was better to have this conversation face to face where he could make sure Bartowski didn't do anything foolish.
He called Beckman and explained his hypothesis to her. Beckman agreed this could be a possibility, but also warned that this could be Graham's ploy as well. Agent Walker was a foot-soldier and had done lots of dirty work for him over the years without any compunctions. If the CIA had decided to cut the NSA out of the loop and appropriate the Human Intersect for themselves, Walker must have received new instructions from her boss. She advised him to keep a close watch on Walker as well as Bartowski. There was no telling whom they could trust at the moment.
Lucky for him, he had bugged Bartowski's watch with a GPS locator already. He saw that Chuck had gone to work today and this was a fortunate outcome indeed. Better for Bartowski to be in a public place, where Walker couldn't grab him unseen. Now he just needed to ensure Walker didn't get any alone time with the asset.
He reached the Burbank BuyMore and walked in with his fictitious resume in hand and was relieved to see Bartowski in one piece. Chuck greeted him tersely, grabbed his file and marched him over to Big Mike's office for the interview. With Chuck's recommendation, Casey's appointment on the NerdHerd staff was a shoo-in and Big Mike welcomed him to the fold with open arms.
As soon as they were out of the office, Casey pulled him aside and warned him, "Do not trust Sarah Walker or the CIA, Bartowski. The circumstances surrounding the death of the NSA scientist are extremely fishy and we suspect the CIA was trying to make their move on you."
Chuck got a text at the same time from Sarah, 'Chuck, I need to see you. Wienerlicious. ASAP.'
Casey noticed that Chuck was skeptical, but he didn't have enough time to elaborate on his suspicions. Lester and Anna had come over to congratulate him on his new job and he was assigned to work with Anna to familiarize himself with the NerdHerd policies. Chuck took the opportunity to slip away and walked across the BuyMore parking lot to the Wienerlicious store. He entered and stopped short in disbelief at what he was seeing. Sarah Walker of the CIA was standing behind the counter dressed up in the Bavarian garb all Wienerlicious employees wore.
Chuck thought privately, 'Wow! Isn't she a sight for sore eyes?'
He was having problems getting his tongue unglued and articulate something coherent. Gathering himself, he shook his head of the host of impure thoughts from his lecherous mind and spoke, "Wow! Um, you sure work fast, Sarah Walker! Never saw you as a Wienerlicious employee to be honest. So, uh, is this why you wanted to see me urgently? To let me know you've got a job as a hot dog salesman in front of the BuyMore?"
Sarah gave a tinkling laugh at how red his face had gone and the effect she was having on him. She smiled knowingly, sure of what kind of images must have popped up in his head seeing her dressed like this. But then she became serious and taking a deep breath, brought up the reason she had asked him to meet her post haste, "Chuck, no private meetings with Casey today."
Chuck was nonplussed and folded his hands defensively, "What? What is up with you guys? Is this to do with Dr. Zarnow's murder? Casey told me the same thing just now."
Sarah snorted, "Of course he did. Chuck, take a look and tell me what this is." She pulled out a plastic bag containing the burnt phone from below and placed it on the counter.
Chuck picked it and took a good look at the item and flashed immediately, "NSA incinerator. Special issue designed to eliminate all biological traces. That's what killed the poor doctor."
"And guess who works for the NSA?"
Chuck was dumbfounded at her accusation, "Why? Why would Casey want to kill Dr. Zarnow? He was a NSA scientist for crying out loud!"
Sarah explained her reasoning, "He's a killer, Chuck. It's what he does for a living. He's already tried to kill us before and he will probably try to do so again. Maybe it was orders. Maybe he didn't like the way Zarnow looked at him."
Chuck scoffed at her, "Oh please, Sarah! You've got to do better than that! Casey is a soldier and he will follow Beckman's orders to the hilt. And Beckman will never have her top scientist from the Intersect project eliminated like this for no reason. Not after she went to such pains to facilitate the entire setup yesterday and keep my identity secret. Remember, Beckman answers to some higher ups as well and they will hold her accountable if she pulled any shenanigans like this."
Sarah could see that half-truths wouldn't work with Chuck. He had punched through her flimsy explanation quite easily, "Alright Chuck. You are smart enough to know the truth. I spoke with Director Graham earlier and he agrees that Beckman and the NSA might be behind this stunt to snatch you and cut out the CIA from the equation. He feels that Beckman may have had Zarnow eliminated to ensure no one would be able to remove those secrets from your head and you have no option but to work for her. She was very displeased when the Attorney General and the National Security Advisor went over her and the DNI's heads and overruled their original plan to conscript you into NSA's service forcibly."
Chuck went over her words thoughtfully, "Okay, I can see where you are coming from. Diane Beckman would send her own mother to the grave, if it meant things going her way. But, I still think you and the CIA are overreacting. I had already agreed to work with both the agencies. Why would she need to go for such an elaborate ruse now?"
Sarah replied exasperated, "Chuck, when Director Graham assigned me for this job, he told me something very crucial. Until the Intersect was sent to you, General Beckman had kept every single US agency away from this project citing it to be a Signal Intelligence operation. She is very territorial when it comes to the Intersect and sees any attempt at an inter-agency joint task-force as an infringement upon her jurisdiction. Believe me, she would go to any lengths to maintain her complete control on the project."
Not knowing how to respond to that, Chuck nodded woodenly at her and left in a daze. He was still sitting at his desk wondering whom to believe, when Casey grabbed his tie and growled at him, "What did Sarah tell you Chuck? I know you went over to the Wienerlicious and talked to her. Tell me!"
Chuck refused to be cowed by Casey's sudden aggressive attitude and looked him in the eye stoically. Casey, frustrated at not getting a response, let him go and decided to go talk to the source himself.
'Ah, the talk so did not go according to plan! Man, Walker really kicked butt back in there,' he later thought to himself. He had tried to bring her in, but she had resisted ferociously and if it wasn't for some of the kids who came in and caused a distraction, one of them, most likely him, would have been left licking the dust off the Wienerlicious floors. 'Now, how to get Bartowski away from the NerdHerd desk and Walker's watchful eyes? Right, I could call in a fake computer emergency and ask for Bartowski specifically,' he mused.
Lester knocking on the counter woke up Chuck from his stupor, "Chuck, uh, we have a code zebra. Linux install at a factory off Ventura. Uh … 142 Euclid. I sent the new guy, John Casey to take care of it, but it looks like he screwed it up somehow and called in requesting assistance. Since he is your guy, I figured you would like to help him out."
Chuck was surprised, "What? You sent Casey on an install alone on his first day at work? Come on, Lester! This is not the way you initiate your new employees. You could have sent at least Skip or Anna with him!"
Lester just grinned sheepishly at him, "Um, he volunteered."
Chuck took a deep breath to control his anger at the situation and blew air out of his mouth, "Okay. It's no big deal. I will go. Call him and tell him I'll be there in less than forty-five minutes."
Shaking his head at the childishness Lester sometimes still displayed, Chuck grabbed the keys of his Nerd Herder and left. He reached the address within forty minutes, got out of the car and looked around for any signs of Casey. Just as he was about to enter the office, he saw Casey step around from behind a pillar. Chuck gawked at him open-mouthed for a few moments. Casey's face was sporting a nasty cut and he was surely limping a bit as well, "What … What happened to you?"
Casey retorted, "Your girlfriend happened."
Chuck's eyes went wide, "What, who, Sarah?"
Casey nodded, "She's rogue, Chuck. She arranged for a hit on the doctor, then she tried to kill me."
Chuck was concerned the two agents were in a fight and couldn't help asking, "Is she okay?"
Casey remarked sarcastically, "Yeah, I'm golden. Thanks for asking."
Chuck shook his head, "No, no, no, why should I believe you? What proof you have that she killed the doctor? Sarah was accusing you guys of the same a little while earlier. She said Beckman would want to have complete control of the Intersect project and got Zarnow killed so that he couldn't take out the secrets from my brain. She even showed me the bomb that killed him."
"NSA incinerator, right? It's a nice explosive, easily purchased on the black market. Don't be fooled by her wily guiles, Chuck. What do you really know about Sarah, huh? Think. She's CIA. She worked with Bryce for more than a year and a half. He was rogue. Maybe the two of them planned this together and wanted to sell all the government secrets to the highest bidder after taking you out. But you went and saw those pictures and are now the Intersect instead. She probably wants to sell you now to her clients. She found you first, but she couldn't grab you because I was around. So she had to wait for her chance. Zarnow and I were witnesses and if there is one thing you should know about Sarah Walker, it's that she leaves no witnesses behind. Ever! That's how she remains a ghost and nobody knows for certain what kind of missions she has pulled in the past. When we ran a check on Sarah Walker to see what we have in the NSA database, the only match that came up was a two year old case when she posed as a French diplomat going by the alias - Elana Truffaut. Two weeks later, an entire inner circle of an arms dealer was found dead under mysterious circumstances. All we have had to date is the mission reports that keep adding to her legend, but nothing to really verify it. That is until you came along. Now all that information is in your head waiting to be pulled up by the right trigger." Casey paused to recover his breath after that impassioned speech.
Chuck came out of the flash that was triggered by the name Casey gave him, "Poison. They were poisoned, at dinner. Four male, three females. It was their very own Last Supper."
He laughed hysterically at his sad attempt at a joke, until he got a call from Sarah. He was in a dilemma whether to answer it or not, but Casey solved his problem by snatching the phone and turning it off. He then grabbed Chuck by his shoulder and pushed him towards his SUV. As soon as they buckled up however, they heard another phone ring in the car.
Casey wondered, "I thought I had turned that off."
"Well, it's not me. Is it yours?"
"No."
As one, they turned behind to look at the back-seat and saw another NSA incinerator sitting there. Shock showed on their faces and they hastily unbuckled and ran out of the car as far as they could, when the bomb exploded and they were thrown up in the air like ragdolls. He got up and started dusting off his clothes, when Casey asked, "Still think it was the NSA who killed Zarnow? I told you, she's cleaning up the operation. Do you know where she is?"
"We were supposed to have dinner with my family, remember? She would probably already be there by the time we reach home."
"We need to get you on the next plane to Washington, kid. It's not safe for you here anymore."
Chuck stared at the NSA agent coolly, "You think I'm leaving my sister without a goodbye? Not gonna happen, Casey. Come on, we are wasting time and I think it's time we confront Agent Walker and the CIA upfront. No more games!"
Chuck was still coming to terms with this bold attempt on their lives and was shaken how close he came to dying by a whisker. He was in an introspective mood and kept quiet the entire time he drove them back in his Nerd Herder. Sadly, by the time they reached home, he still wasn't able to reconcile the reasons for Sarah Walker to turn on them and decide to kill Casey with such impunity.
Chuck and Casey entered Ellie's apartment at a run and balked at the scene in front of them. Ellie and Anna were setting up the table for dinner, while Devon, Sarah and Morgan were nursing a glass of wine each talking and laughing at some joke Anna had just made. Morgan cheered when they showed up finally, "Chuck! You guys are late, dude! We are so hungry. You two look like hell. What happened to you on that install? Did you have to crawl through air ducts or something? Come on, freshen up quickly and take a seat. Ellie made pot roast, my favorite!"
Chuck introduced John to the others, "Uh, yeah Morgan, we had to replace some old wires in the basement and it was very dusty there. John here took a tumble and hurt his face too. John, meet my sister and her boyfriend, Captain Devon Woodcomb or as we all call him, Captain Awesome. You've already met the others. Ellie, Devon, this is the ex-marine I told you about on the phone. You guys talk while I clean up myself. Ellie, can you take a look at John's wounds in the meantime? Thanks."
Soon, they all sat down for dinner and Chuck, Sarah and Casey went into their cover stories in detail. As expected, when John mentioned he was looking for a place to live nearby, Morgan immediately suggested the empty apartment next door. Towards the end, however, Chuck wished he could be anywhere but here tonight. Casey and Sarah had been glaring at each other throughout the meal, when they thought no one was looking. But Ellie and Devon had both picked up on the uneasiness between them. When Ellie stood up to bring in the desserts, Devon tried to mediate, "So Sarah, tell us something about yourself."
Sarah broke the staring match between her and Casey and replied, "Uh, I'm originally from D.C. I just moved here and will be working odd jobs here and there to pay my bills, until I find my feet and direction again."
Morgan interrupted, "Oh, Chuck had a friend from D.C. Well, I would say he was more of a former friend. Former, because, A: Bryce Larkin was a huge jerk, and B: he's … well, he's dead. The girl Chuck was dating back in Stanford, he stole her. Ouch! Anna, why did you kick me in the shin again?"
Anna glowered at Morgan, "You're such an insensitive moron! Let it go, Morgan. You don't have to be jealous of a dead person anymore."
Ellie placed the two plates in her hand on the table while defending Chuck's old girlfriend, "And don't you dare bad-mouth Jill either. She never chose Bryce over Chuck. It was just an unfortunate misunderstanding."
Ellie looked up to see three sets of wide eyes riveted on her and she backtracked a bit, "Um, that is not to say she didn't break our hearts when she ended things with Chuck. Anyways, let's forget the past and celebrate new beginnings with this amazing looking chocolate souffle that Sarah made herself!"
In retrospect, Chuck thought his reaction to that particular announcement could have gone better. He had panicked when he remembered the poisoning incident from Sarah's case files that Casey had mentioned earlier and decided to sabotage the questionable dessert. He offered to show everyone a neat trick, where he would pull the tablecloth from under the various dishes, without disturbing the entire setup. Of course, the idea was to fail spectacularly so that Sarah's dish was ruined and they wouldn't have to taste it to check if she had really poisoned it or not. Unfortunately for him, his first ever attempt at the trick ended up being wildly successful and he was as shocked as everyone else that he had actually managed to pull it off. Bless Casey for his resourcefulness, as he was the one to seal the deal by bumping the table, so that the candle fell directly onto the souffle. Chuck grabbed the cake and dashed towards the bathroom so he could put out the fire, with Ellie and the others following him in the bathroom to see if everything was alright. Ellie was about to blow a gasket, but she caught Chuck mumbling lowly under his breath, "Casey and I thought it may have been poisoned."
She looked up sharply at that and began to shoo everyone outside so she could have a discreet word with her brother, but Sarah insisted there was no harm done and she wished to talk to Chuck alone.
Sensing something major was amiss, she started to protest, but Chuck had calmed down by now and nodded at Ellie to give them some privacy. As soon as the door was closed, Sarah let loose her rage and pushed Chuck against the door forcibly. She twisted his arm behind him and questioned, "Tell me exactly what Casey said. What did he tell you?"
Chuck pushed her back with his larger body mass and ducked counter-clockwise to free his arm from her stranglehold. Their positions were reversed now, with Sarah trapped against the door, but he stepped back and allowed some space between them, "Casey and the NSA are of the opinion that you were in league with Bryce's plan to steal the Intersect and sell it to the highest bidder. And now that it's all in my brain, you have improvised by deciding to kill both the witnesses and hand me over to your contacts. He told me about your mission in France two years back when you poisoned some French diplomats at dinner. When Ellie mentioned you brought the souffle, I panicked and reacted badly. I'm really sorry about that. Personally, I don't believe the woman I have known for the last two weeks could be that cold hearted, but the fact remains that Dr. Zarnow was killed in an explosion yesterday and the same incendiary device was planted in Casey's SUV earlier. We managed to escape certain death by a hair's breadth prior to coming home. That's the reason we were so banged up."
Sarah was stunned speechless, "Those weren't diplomats in France, they were a ring of French assassins sent by their master to get rid of me, but I got to them first. And I'm kinda glad that I did! Casey is nuts if he thinks I would throw away my life just for an obscene sum of money. I know it looks bad that Bryce Larkin was my partner before he went rogue, but I was cleared of any offense soon after he vanished. Accusing me of being a cold hearted killer is one thing, I would freely admit I have done some questionable things in the past for the CIA. But if he thinks I will tolerate anyone even hinting that I would under any situation betray my country, he has another thing coming! Chuck, I never asked you to believe me, I asked you to trust me."
Chuck looked into her eyes and could see the truth in them. He tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear and asked, "Okay, if the NSA didn't kill Zarnow and you didn't attempt to blow up Casey before, who do you think was responsible then? Could there be a leak from Graham's or Beckman's office? Or was this an internal strike by the CIA behind your back?"
Sarah was upset, "There is a third possibility that we have all overlooked! I have to go, you stay here with Casey." She rushed out of the bathroom, grabbed her purse and was out of the door within no time. Chuck made an excuse to his sister and friends about it being late and needing to drop off Casey at his hotel and followed Sarah outside. Casey took point when they heard Sarah scream, but when they reached the main gate, all Chuck saw was someone dumping Sarah's body in the trunk of their car and shooting Casey with a tranq gun from the car's window. He tried to move around Casey's bulk to catch the perp, but the driver floored the accelerator and the car shot off into the darkness leaving them behind.
Frustrated, Chuck shouted, "Who the hell was that?"
Casey was surprisingly still coherent, "Zarnow. That was Dr. Zarnow. Son of a bitch faked his own death and tried to kill me today. When I get my hands on him, I'm going to wring his neck personally."
Chuck somehow managed to carry Casey over to his Nerd Herder and buckled him in. Casey was feeling drowsy and they needed to make a decision fast, "Casey, is there an antidote you have handy for this sedative? You need to be hundred percent alert if we are going to face an unknown number of hostiles. I can ask my sister if she has any stock of Anexate or we could try a vitamin shot of B-12b if it helps any."
Casey looked at him as if he had two heads, "Bartowski, we don't have enough time and I don't make it a habit of lugging around tranquilizer antidotes in my pockets. Besides, there is no way we are telling your sister about anything. I doubt she would hand over the antidote without asking any questions, even if she does have it in her stock. Come on, drive in the direction Zarnow took off. If we are lucky, we will catch up with him quickly."
They wasted another ten minutes trying to catch a glimpse of the car Zarnow had used, but he had vanished in the dark leaving them no trail to follow. Chuck slammed his fist on the car's dashboard when he realized they were lost, "Okay, this is getting us nowhere. Casey, think fast, if you were a bad guy, what would you do, fly a plane or use a boat for your getaway?"
Casey replied thoughtfully, "Chopper. I would use a chopper at an out of the way, small airfield near the water, the closest I could find."
"Good! Then do a satellite search limiting it to airfields within thirty miles of us and then limit that further to see if there is any activity on the ground. Use my laptop and follow my directions so you can hack into a satellite overhead."
Casey smirked at him, "Not bad, Bartowski! Though there is no need to hack into anything. I can use my credentials to gain access to the satellite feed. Good thing, we made some enhancements to your car when it was in the shop. We won't be needing your laptop either. Ha! Found it! Port of Los Angeles. I can see there is a flight plan for a chopper to take off within next thirty minutes."
Chuck let out a breath of relief and hoped they would find Sarah in time. If Zarnow started torturing her, he wasn't certain they could hold him accountable for any damage he caused to the doctor or his cohorts.
When they reached the port, Chuck stopped his car out of the way where it was hidden behind some large crates. Casey turned to him and spoke deliberately, "This is how this is gonna work. I'm gonna go over there, rescue Sarah, and capture Dr. Zarnow, shoot anybody who gets in my way. You, you're gonna stay here in the car."
Chuck refused to back down, "Don't be stupid, Casey. These guys are packing heat. You will need backup. Call it in first and give me a spare. Two bodies are better than one and gives us a greater advantage. Plus, we will have the element of surprise here."
Casey snarled at him, "Listen here moron. This is not Call of Duty. These are live bullets and the bad guys are not video game characters. They will shoot to kill. I won't be taking any chances with regards to your safety, no matter how good you are with a gun. I should never have brought you here in the first place, but I had no choice because that bastard, Zarnow tranqed me. Now, I am going to lock you in here and take the keys, so don't you get any ideas of playing the hero. Walker and I are expendable, you are not! We both knew the risks getting into this assignment. Don't beat up yourself over it and don't make any noise to attract the bad guys' attention."
Chuck looked on furiously as Casey made good with his threat and locked him in, "Shit! Casey, at least leave a channel of communication open between us. Damn it, Casey!"
Casey had already walked off into the shadows without paying attention to what Chuck was hollering. Chuck was pissed off, but called Casey on his cell hoping he would have the sense to keep his cell in silent mode and the call active. Casey ignored his call, however, and kept ignoring the second and third time he tried calling. He would be a sitting duck if Zarnow's lackeys found his car, it was too conspicuous to pass it off as a coincidence. Giving up on Casey, Chuck dialed his FBI contact, explained the situation to Don in brief and requested immediate SWAT backup and medical assistance, cautioning them to approach the scene with absolute stealth. With nothing else left to do, he tilted his seat as far back as it went and reclined so that he could keep an eye on what was happening with the chopper.
It was just his bad luck that one of the patrolling guard decided to take a leak so far out from where the chopper was. He prayed and prayed to anyone listening that the guard would not notice the long shadow from his car, but it was not to be so. He cursed Casey six ways to Sunday, but had no choice other than to lie as still as he could and make himself unnoticeable. The guard came over and knocked on the window with the butt of his AK-47. Chuck sat up trying to pass it off as if he was just waking up from a short nap, but the guard was already suspicious when Chuck wouldn't open the door. He lifted the butt to signal his intention of breaking open the window and Chuck scrambled over on to the other side covering his head with his arms as the broken glass shards rained down on him. Lifting his hands up in the universal sign of surrender, he stepped out of the car through the passenger door. The guard barked at him, "Who are you and what are you doing here? Answer me or I will put a bullet in your forehead in 3 seconds."
Chuck tried to placate him, "Look, dude! No need to be hasty. My friend pulled a practical joke on me and locked me in the car, taking the keys with him. We were told to come here for picking up a special package tonight, if you know what I mean. We didn't mean to step on your toes at all. We had no idea your people had another deal going down at the same time here. Let's call it a honest mistake and we can go our separate ways. I will call my friend and tell him we are relocating and retrieve our powder elsewhere."
The guard relaxed his stance and lowered his gun fractionally, apparently buying into Chuck's story of being a cocaine courier, "Huh, never seen a Nerd Herder being used for transport before. What's the deal with that?"
Chuck shrugged nonchalantly, "What can I say? It's a nice cover. If the cops pull me over, I just tell them there is a computer emergency and I am the on call person on duty. You gotta do, what you gotta do, man!"
The guard laughed and nodded at him, "Ain't that right, brother? Listen, you don't wanna be here tonight. If I were you, I would leave your friend behind and turn tail outta here. Let your partner take the heat, after all he was the one who locked you in here without any backup."
"Yeah, I will just hotwire the car and drive away. Gimme a few moments."
Chuck proceeded carefully towards the other side of the car and pulled out the wires from below the ignition lock. He had the engine running in less than a minute and stood up to thank the guard for his consideration. He could see that the thug was impressed with his skills and had relaxed completely, with his gun now hanging loosely on his arm, the barrel pointing down towards the ground. This was the opportunity Chuck was looking for. He extended his right hand towards the guard with a smile on his face and as soon as he took it, he grabbed the gun with his left hand, tightened his hold on the thug and pulled him down so his knee met the guard's face with a satisfying crunch. He then delivered a chop strike to his victim's occipital lobe and the guard dropped like a sack of potatoes, out of commission until someone revived him. The entire maneuver had taken less than fifteen seconds. Working quickly, Chuck relieved the unconscious man of his gun and thinking over it for a moment, removed all his clothes too. Using his penknife, he cut out the shoulder strap from the gun and fashioned some crude bindings to tie up the guard, picked him up and dropped him in the backseat. He got into the car and reversed it, this time ensuring that the car was well behind the lamp-post that had cast the long shadow in the first place.
As he changed his NerdHerd attire into the stolen clothes, he pondered his next course of action. Casey had been gone for over fifteen minutes now and the backup Chuck had requested wouldn't be here for atleast another half an hour. The other guards would soon start looking for their missing comrade and that would alert them to something amiss. He tried once again calling Casey, but it went directly to voicemail this time.
What he didn't know was that Casey had ran into a group of mercenaries in his search for Sarah and had barely taken out two of them, when one of their buddies had entered the room from a side door, distracting him and giving the others a chance to to return fire. He had jumped out of the way behind a makeshift barricade of wooden crates, but was more or less pinned down. His phone had slipped out of his pocket and was damaged beyond repair when a ricocheting bullet hit it.
Chuck listened carefully and could hear the sound of faint gunshots coming from behind him. So, Casey had found his targets after all. This was beneficial to his plan to remain undetected for as long as he could. A few guards near the chopper had rushed over to the gunfight to assist their associates, leaving behind just two of them to watch over. Silent as a panther, Chuck made his way through the shadows, hugging the walls and crept behind one of the sentries. He delivered a quick chop-strike at the base of his skull similar to the previous guard's fate, and caught him before he dropped to the ground and made any noise alerting the remaining guard. Lowering him gently, he stepped around the chopper and saw that the pilot was now looking suspiciously at where he had stood moments before. He turned around to alert the other guard of their missing companion, but was surprised to see him knocked out cold on the ground. Chuck stood up with a sudden movement from where he was crouched below the chopper's door, seized the pilot by his hair and suckerpunched his left kidney, leading to a sudden expulsion of air from his lungs. Before he could recover his breath, Chuck stepped up, turned him around and grabbed him in a chokehold, applying pressure until the hapless pilot lost consciousness. He deposited the three bodies behind a dumpster near the warehouse on his left and tied each of their hands and feet with some zip ties he found in their clothes.
Letting out a breath, Chuck looked at the time and noted ten more minutes had passed and there was still no sign of Casey. The distant sound of gunfire was still on, so Casey was holding well on his own, but it also meant that there would be no unwanted distractions for Chuck as he searched this side of the hangar for Zarnow and Sarah. He went through the warehouse closest to the chopper, but didn't find any signs of human presence. As he moved on to the next building, he heard faint noises of laughter coming in from his left. Chuck snapped at the thought of Zarnow torturing Sarah and foregoing any stealth, ran full pelt towards the side entrance. Just as he was about to turn the corner, he saw the door open and threw himself back, waiting to see who emerged from the building. Based on his long coat and tie and the missing BDUs, Chuck surmised this must be Zarnow. He stepped further back as the doctor ambled towards the chopper without a care in the world.
Chuck was in two minds now, should he follow Zarnow first and take him out or should he go check up on Sarah instead? There could be other guards in there with her and they might continue to torture her in the time it took him to incapacitate Zarnow. Hearing what sounded like a muffled scream, this time much clearer due to his proximity, he made up his mind and scurried towards the door. He tried to slip inside as quiet as he could, but the squeaking hinges gave him away. He looked around and what he saw boiled his blood further. Sarah was handcuffed and her hands were chained to an overhead pipe, while her legs were tied down to the ground restricting her movements completely. There was a nasty bruise forming on her left cheek and blood was flowing freely from a cut on her forehead. A lone thug was standing near her with a baseball bat in his hand and it looked like Sarah had already been dealt a couple of blows with it to her stomach and knees, judging by the way she was hunched over and favoring her left side.
Enraged beyond belief, Chuck dropped his borrowed gun and charged the thug who was standing there stupefied. He was expecting Dr. Zarnow to have come back with the sedative and instead was met with this angry man. He tried to swing the bat at Chuck at the last moment, but a single round house kick divested him of his weapon. Chuck started pummeling him with his fists and the guard faltered under his vicious onslaught. He kicked the guard one last time in the head, knocking him unconscious and rooted for the keys in his pockets. Finding them, he immediately started to free Sarah from her restraints.
He held her gently and sat her down before he took off the tape that covered her mouth. If he was expecting a show of gratitude from the captured agent for rescuing her from further torture, he was bitterly disappointed. As soon as Sarah got her bearings, she started tearing him a new one, "Chuck! What the hell are you doing here? You have to get out of here. You shouldn't even be here, you're too valuable, and besides, I had this well in hand."
Chuck remarked sarcastically, "Yeah, I could see how well you had this in hand. Please, they were torturing you! You are lucky these bastards didn't break your kneecaps. Uh, they didn't, did they?" He was extremely concerned.
Sarah shook her head, "No, the idiot tried to hit me there, but I turned my legs in time to absorb the blow sideways. This is not the first time I have been in such a situation, Chuck. I could have handled myself, no problem."
Chuck stood and put his hands up in defense, "Okay, okay, I believe you. But what's done is done and we need to get out of here snappish. Zarnow must have already noticed his missing pilot and we should scram before he comes back with more of his goons. I called Don earlier and the FBI SWAT team and EMTs should be here in the next ten minutes or so. We just have to lay low until then."
Chuck helped Sarah stand up and she gingerly put her weight on her injured knee, but grimaced as a shooting pain coursed through her entire left side. Chuck lifted her in his arms despite her feeble protests and started towards the door, when it was slammed open with a bang by none other than Zarnow. Luckily he was alone, which meant that Casey must have taken care of all the remaining guards, since there was no sound of gunfire anymore. Zarnow was shaking with anger and had his 9 mm trained on the two of them. Chuck put Sarah down carefully, still supporting the bulk of her weight with his body, when he saw Zarnow step into the light and got a good look at his face for the first time tonight.
It triggered a flash of information in his brain and Chuck winced at the sudden barrage of images he was flooded with. He gasped aloud, "You - you've been feeding American science and secrets to China and North Korea for years. And all this for what? Satisfying your greed for money? You miserable traitor! And to think, at one point, I looked forward to working with people like you!"
Zarnow's expression changed from livid to excited in a spick of a second, "Ah, our mystery candidate! To think that all my secrets are in that head of yours. The NSA tried to fool me into thinking you didn't know much, but I am not stupid. I made the right connections and showed you a few ultra high secret files during the test yesterday and you passed with flying colors! My hunch paid off, Agent Larkin did send you the entire Intersect. It's an honor, really, to see the culmination of my life's work standing in front of me. Of course, to hell with the honor. I'm here for the impressive dollar figure the Human Intersect will fetch me. Good thing I didn't kill you right away, as I first wanted to. You have been a very naughty boy, haven't you? Now tell me where my missing pilot is and I will let Agent Walker go free. I have no further use for her. Let's make this easy on everyone involved and there will be no unnecessary bloodshed. Come on, chop-chop!"
Seeing no way out of the jam, Chuck raised his hands to show he was surrendering himself and took a couple of steps forward slowly. Just then, Casey entered the fray from behind a glass door nearby which he smashed with a chair and stepped in with his gun trained on the doctor. Zarnow made the elementary mistake of taking his eyes off of his captives to look at the new entrant. He soon realized his error and turned around, but Chuck had already closed the distance and let fly a solid kick knocking the gun out of his hand. With no option left, Zarnow tried to run back out the door, but a single warning shot from Casey near his feet discouraged him of such a move. Chuck took out the handcuffs that Sarah had been tied with earlier and put them on Zarnow, frog-marching him towards Casey and handing him over. He went back to Sarah who was barely standing straight now and picked her up in his arms once again. They made their way to his Nerd Herder, where Chuck saw Don had started processing the halfnaked thug from his car. The FBI agent informed them that his team had just arrived on the scene and enquired about their status.
Chuck smiled wryly at him, "Well, we would have loved it if you had made it here fifteen minutes before, but all's well that ends well, I suppose. Where are the medics, by the way? Agent Walker here took a few hits and needs urgent medical care. How soon can we transport her to the nearest emergency trauma center?"
The EMT in charge who was conducting the preliminary triage on Sarah postulated about fifteen minutes to reach Long Beach Memorial, but Casey nixed that idea since it was not on the list of approved hospitals for Federal agents. He suggested going to USC Medical instead, but it was atleast half an hour away. Sarah who was slipping in and out of consciousness, came to and gritted her teeth before insisting on being okay with the delay if it meant their covers were not blown. Making a snap decision, Chuck directed the EMTs to load their patient in the helicopter and they would take the aerial route to reach their destination. He knew for certain this hospital boasted of a working helipad. Casey started to object, but Chuck shut him up by reminding him that he needed to fill in the FBI on what went down here tonight.
Sarah goggled at him, "So, you can fly a helicopter too?"
Chuck shrugged as he she was being strapped to the stretcher, "I have a valid license, if you must know. Got eight hundred hours of flying experience under my belt. What? That's not too surprising, is it? Even Ellie has a similar permit. You guys are forgetting who her boyfriend is."
Don laughed at the incredulous expressions on Casey and Sarah's faces and pulled Chuck aside for a few moments, talking to him in a low voice. Casey saw that Chuck shook his head no firmly and responded with a single statement, "Same as before. No change yet, I'll let you know if anything changes," before saying his goodbyes.
As they started pushing Sarah's gurney towards the chopper, Chuck heard the guard he had subdued before wonder, "Huh, so that guy is a Fed, is he? Figures! And here I was convinced he was just a lowly crack dealer."
Chuck had been waiting for word about Sarah's condition for half an hour, when Casey joined him after he wrapped up things with the FBI and transferred Zarnow to NSA custody. Chuck handed him a coffee without a word, knowing Casey for some reason was irritated with him and about to lose his temper. He got a temporary reprieve from Casey's wrath however, as the doctor operating on Sarah's injuries stepped out of the ER and gave them the good news. Agent Walker would be fine by the end of the week as long as she took good care of her knee and performed no strenuous activities. There were no internal injuries or bleeding either. They had reached her in time and Zarnow's lackey had not got a chance to inflict more than a few blows. The doctor cleared them to visit her as soon as the orderlies finished transferring her to a private room.
Five minutes later found them standing in her room, Casey near the end of her bed and Chuck closer to her left. He squeezed Sarah's hand as a gesture of comfort and smiled at her softly, "I'm glad you are okay, Sarah. And I'm not at all sorry, I didn't wait for the backup to arrive before reaching you. Who knows how far Zarnow would have gone to get my identity from you? I just couldn't have that on my conscience, when I was in a position to stop him from hurting you anymore."
Casey mumbled something along the same lines. He was feeling extremely uncomfortable as he always felt out of his element whenever put in such emotional situations.
Sarah was still not ready to let the matter drop, "Chuck, even though I am happy you stopped them, I cannot condone your behavior at all! What the hell were you thinking? The secrets that you know are incredibly important. You compromised almost everything when you stopped trusting me."
Casey butted in loudly, "And when you got out of the car."
Chuck was taken aback at the vehemence from both of their tones, "Hey, it's okay."
But Sarah was on a roll now, "No, it's not okay! How could you guys think I was a traitor, huh? You know, I am not Bryce. Bryce betrayed everything that I believed in, and if you ever accuse me of that again, then I will walk away. Mission over. We all go back to Washington. And you do not want that to happen, Chuck. That you should trust me on."
Chuck couldn't believe what he was hearing and snickered, "Really? Wow! This is rich coming from you two so called professionals!"
His eyes went dark and flinty as he almost growled, "You accuse me of compromising everything, Agent Walker? When at the first sign of trouble, you and your bosses went back to your age old ways of accusing each other of sabotage. Not only that, you two even tried to convince me the other person was the traitor. Even went so far to exchange blows at a semi-public place. And you ask me why I don't trust you? How can I, when you guys don't trust each other in the first place? I told you once and I will tell you both again, here and now. I don't trust blindly anymore. Your totally unprofessional behavior today was the real reason for this entire fuckup.
You know what I think Agent Walker and Agent Casey? The real reason you two are angry and taking out your frustration on me is 'cause you're feeling embarrassed that someone like me showed you up tonight. You ever stopped to wonder Walker how Zarnow found you so easily in LA? He must have placed a tracker on your car yesterday, that's how! And you, CIA's best, don't even bother to equip your vehicle with basic anti-surveillance gadgets? Some might even call that arrogance.
And you, Casey, you didn't even bother to keep a line of communication open between us when you locked me in the car. What the hell was I supposed to do when that goon came across me? I was lucky he bought my story of being a crack courier and relaxed his guard. You didn't even think about calling in the backup, I was the one who did that! And disabled the pilot thus buying us more time until the FBI showed up. You should have thought of that. You always disable the getaway transport first! Any amateur who has ever played HALO or Call of Duty could tell you that! I will grant you some leeway that you were under the effects of a tranquilizer, but then you should have heeded my suggestion of taking an antidote, so you were at your sharpest.
And Sarah, I like to think I'm a good judge of character, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation. I was not the one who accused you of being in league with Bryce for selling the national secrets to our enemies. That was Casey. I don't know how well you knew Bryce, but I knew him pretty well back in Stanford. And believe me, Bryce Larkin may have had many faults, but being a traitor is not one of them. He was a patriot and would never sell out his country, especially after 9/11. I can't tell you why he did what he did, but I trust him to have had a reason, however misguided his self-justifications might be. Once he'd made up his mind, nothing would stop him, no matter the consequences for other people.
Oh, and that threat you made about walking away, I would like to be a fly on the wall when you have that conversation with your bosses. Don't be under a false impression that either of your personal preferences matter to your superiors. In fact, I would go out on a limb and say I hold the majority of the cards here. Remember, I volunteered to be a part of this experimental project, the CIA and the NSA need me, not the other way round. If you request for a reassignment, Graham and Beckman won't be very happy, because they will need to bring in additional people in on our secret. And you can kiss goodbye to any plum international assignments later. You will be chained to your desks for as long as I am the Intersect and your every move will be monitored to ensure you don't somehow leak this critical information. I don't think either of you want that. If you think you can move me to Washington or drop me in a bunker without my approval, you are clearly deluded. I told you I had my own insurance policy, didn't I? I have contacts pretty high up the food chain. I would advise you to get off your high horses and make nice with each other. If today's incident has taught us anything, it's that we need to work together to root out traitors like Zarnow from our midst. I hope what I've said has made enough of an impression on you two and you will be more professional going forward. Have a good night!"
Chuck took a deep breath and stalked away leaving two dumbfounded agents behind.
Casey was the one who broke the silence, "Well, that could have gone better."
Sarah frowned, "Yeah, he sure took us to task, Casey. He is right, though. I lashed out at him without any provocation because I didn't like that he was the one who saved my hide in the torture chamber. He is our asset, we are supposed to protect him, not the other way around. What happened tonight won't instill much confidence in him about my abilities. I let myself be taken and tortured by Zarnow, for Christ's sake! He would be completely within his rights to report my failure and request for my replacement."
Casey sighed, "Look Walker, the kid is right. We both made basic mistakes because we were too lax and staring daggers at each other instead of looking over our shoulders like good spies. Let's give him credit where it's due and do as he says, patch up our differences and work together. We have to get our brains in gear. It won't reflect too well on our records if word got out that a civvie like Bartowski one upped us. The day that kid defused a bomb with porn, I had an inkling this assignment would be crazy. I've had my doubts if Chuck would behave like a normal asset, and tonight shows that won't be the case. Any other person would have run away from a bomb or folded in a blubbering heap when confronted by an AK-47, but this man instead keeps running towards the danger and keeps his wits about himself. Bartowski has a hero complex, Sarah. He is not one to stand back and let others around him be in danger, when he can help. Did you know, he knocked out five of those thugs all by himself including the pilot? They were all trained personnel, Walker, and he got the drop on every one of them! Sometimes I think the kid is too well trained."
Sarah agreed, "Yeah, it does seem so, doesn't it? But then we already knew how good he is at unarmed combat. Maybe, it was just the adrenaline and basic common sense how he took out the four guards outside. But the one who was torturing me? I'm telling you Casey, Chuck was extremely lucky that guy was not expecting anyone other than Zarnow to walk in through that door. I saw the look in his eyes Casey, Chuck totally lost it when he found me. He got too emotional and in such a hairy situation, those kinds of emotions will get you killed. If we are to do our job and keep Chuck safe, we have to guarantee that he will not be put in such a position anymore. Or we can make use of his expertise and form a full-fledged three-man team after we train him and bring him up to par with us. Some people want to be heroes and others have to be asked. Let's ask him."
Casey nodded approvingly, "That's a good idea, Walker. I will definitely run it by Beckman and Graham tomorrow. Have some rest tonight. We will be here tomorrow when you are discharged. Good night."
"Thanks Casey. Good night."
3 October 2007
Next morning, as they drove to Sarah's hotel, Chuck brought up his intention of going to Bryce's funeral day after tomorrow. Casey bit off the first two responses that came to his mind. He had all but forgotten that during his tirade yesterday, Chuck had refused to accept Bryce Larkin could be a traitor. Those two sure had a complicated friendship.
Sarah had looked up in surprise at his declaration, she didn't think Chuck had forgiven Bryce for ruining his life five years back and when she asked him, Chuck replied absently, "I forgave Bryce for accusing me of cheating before I left Stanford. It didn't really affect my plans all that much. Besides, he saved my life back then. The only reason I was still angry with him for so long, was because he went behind my back and screwed my girlfriend. But then, someone I loved dearly once told me - if not Bryce, Jill would have betrayed me with someone else. Bryce was just the most convenient choice for her. So yeah, as far as I am concerned, it's all water under the bridge. Bryce and I never got a chance to reconcile our differences. I would like to take this opportunity to at least say goodbye in person. And it would be fun to mock his step-mom and half-sister as they put on a show of faking sadness for everyone's sake."
Sarah was bewildered at his out of the blue comment, "What? What are you talking about?"
"Oh, just a promise I made him once. I never break my promises if I can help it." Chuck raised an eyebrow at her astonishment, "I thought you two were partners, did Bryce never tell you about his family life? His birth mom died when he was a kid and his dad remarried soon after. When Bryce started acting up, his parents shipped him off to a boarding school. That kinda killed his relationship with his dad as well. Bryce could have gone to MIT or Cambridge, but he wanted to be as far away from his family as possible. So he chose Stanford instead. Our sophomore year, his dad gave him an ultimatum to concentrate on economics or political science instead of engineering. He wanted Bryce to join the family firm after college. But of course, no one told Bryce Larkin how to live his life. He refused point blank and his father cut him out of his will, making his half-sister, Penelope, the sole beneficiary. That year, Bryce stayed over at my place for all the holidays. He never spoke with his father after that. You know how I can be sure Bryce Larkin is not a traitor? His dad was in the South tower on September 11, when the terrorists brought it down. That was probably one of the chief reasons why Bryce jumped at the chance to join the CIA. Funny how he did end up switching his major next year to honor his dad's last wish."
Sarah was too overwhelmed at the avalanche of information Chuck shared with them. No wonder Bryce told her he was an orphan. For all practical purposes, he really was. The only ties he had with his past life was Chuck and his sister, and he had more or less burnt that bridge as well.
At the end of the day, Bryce Larkin was as lonely a soul as she was.