Checked the mail today. No royalty checks for Chuck or Burn Notice so I guess I still don't own them.
Thanks again for all the continuing reviews.
A special thanks to Poa who helped me go back and edit some typos and bad grammar in Chapters one and two.
CHUCK VERSUS THE BURN NOTICE
CHAPTER 5
Making Plans
"Alexis?" Michael Westen asked, stunned, as Carina entered his loft.
"Hello, Michael," Carina replied.
Chuck was muttering something, but Casey ignored him. "Alexis?"
Carina smiled at Michael. "Michael helped me take down some poppy dealers in Ankara a few years back," Carina explained. "I was going by Alexis Andropov back then."
Sarah turned on Carina. "So you knew who Michael Westen was when we spoke last night?"
"Of course," Carina answered. "Why do you think they gave me the assignment to check into the ex-spy? I had previous history with Michael."
"Previous history?" Fiona muttered. "Is that what they're calling it now?"
"Down, Fi," Sam whispered to her. Louder, he said, "Hey, Charlie, how 'bout breaking out those donuts?" Sam took the boxes from Chuck and put them on the counter by the fridge. "Ooh! Boston crème!"
Casey grunted, but he took a raspberry filled. Chuck picked out a chocolate croissant with a napkin and brought it over to Sarah, who rewarded him with a smile. Chuck got a goofy grin and walked back over to get a Boston crème for himself.
Sarah looked back over at Carina. "How come you didn't tell us you knew Michael?"
"You didn't ask," Carina said. "Jealous?"
Sarah huffed and turned to her croissant and smiled at Chuck, just to make her message clear.
Casey leaned over to Sam and muttered, "I've heard of love triangles, but this is getting ridiculous."
Sam whispered back, "So is Carina single?"
Casey got a mysterious grin on his face. "Go for it, Sam."
Fiona wandered ever so casually over to stand by Michael.
Finally, Chuck said rather loudly, "So, Michael, have you thought of a plan?"
Michael immediately shifted into 'agent mode.' "First thing we need is intel. I want to try to get a bug in Obregon's car.
"Fresh out of bugs," Casey said. "We can't exactly requisition some for this op from the CIA."
"What about the ones in Ellie and Devon's room?" Chuck asked.
"Not enough range," Casey said. "We need some long-range hardware for a car."
"Actually," Sam said, "Mikey's got that covered. We take a cell phone…"
"Oh yeah! That's brilliant," Chuck gushed. "You can take the microphone from a cheap cell phone and hook it to the electronics from a better cell so you get the range and battery life, but the cheap speaker picks up everything."
"That's pretty good, Carmichael," Michael said. "You've done some fieldwork?"
"Not exactly," Chuck started to say.
"Agent Carmichael is one of our technical experts," Sarah cut in, and shot Chuck a warning look.
"We'll have to go get some cell phones," Chuck said. He was already planning out the modifications in his head.
"Here you go," Sam said, pulling out a box filled with various cell phone and cell phone parts. He put it on the table next to some tools and a soldering iron.
Chuck grinned and got to work. "You sure you know what you're doing, Carmichael?" Michael asked.
"Just watch me," Chuck said with a grin.
Michael frowned and Fiona gave him a nudge with her hip. "Suddenly not the smartest boy in the class, Michael?" she whispered. As a spy, Michael Westen was something of a nerd himself. He was an expert at cobbling together what they needed from whatever was readily available. His ego was a little bruised (although he would never admit it) that someone else was encroaching on his territory.
"Focus, Michael," Fiona whispered.
"Okay," Michael said. "The original plan was for me to pose as a drug runner so I could get access to Obregon's organization and find out where he was hiding the girls. Then we were going to get the word to one of the big dealers in the area that Obregon was trying to move up and provide him intel on Obregon's organization. We free the girls and the other dealer takes care of Obregon and his organization for us."
"Not a bad plan," Casey said appreciatively.
"Mikey's a whiz at operational planning," Sam said. "Great tactical awareness."
"Of course, that plan's out the window. After the DEA raid Tuesday night, Obregon is not going to trust me, at least not without a little work on our part. So I think we offer him a carrot and a stick. First, the carrot. We are going to convince him that Fi here is a 'mother' who recruits mules and has lost her 'customer.' Sarah and Carina will be her mules. Sam, can you get us some passports for them? Show them to be about 20 or 21 and from somewhere in the Midwest. I wish we had a small GPS tracker we could place on them so we could track their position."
Chuck looked up from where he was soldering one of the cell phones. "We can pull the GPS transceiver out of my watch and plant it one of their clothes. It should be small enough that it can be hidden without being detectible and… Wait a minute; did you say Sarah was going to be a mule? You're planning on turning her over to a bunch of drug dealers? Sarah, this is crazy. I'm not…"
While Chuck was talking, Sarah got up and walked over to him and placed a hand on his arm. "Let's hear him out, Chuck."
Chuck didn't look happy, but he motioned for Michael to continue. Sarah noticed, however, that he did not seem to be nearly so interested in his cell phone project and was listening much more closely to the plan.
"Fi has got to convince Obregon to have her take her mules to the safe house where he's hiding the other girls. Carina, do you know of any mid-level drug dealer Obregon uses who we can turn to get Fi and introduction?"
Now that they were in operational planning, Carina was all business. "I have a couple ideas. Let me think on it. I can get us someone."
"Good, Michael said. "Now for the stick: I bust his chops for his getting me caught up in a DEA raid. We have to convince him that the DEA has made him a target and is moving in on his operation. That's where you, Casey, and you, Sam, come in. You're our DEA agents. You're going to be tailing Obregon, but not too close. We want him to feel enough pressure, but not so much that he closes the operation. We want him off balance. Worried. If we can either convince him to cut his losses and dump the girls, or find out where the girls are and get them out, that's half the battle."
"So Fi's the primary to find out where the girls are," Sam interjected, "and Casey and I are the backup. We convince him that continuing to use the mules is going to get him in trouble, so he is better off going through you to move his drugs."
"Right, Sam," Michael said. "As far as taking Obregon down, I see no need to change the original plan. If we can get Carmichael's bug there on him, we should be able to gather enough intel about his organization. Then we drop the info that he's looking to expand through a new import source – me – and enough intel to take out his organization and pass it on to one of the big dealers in town. They take out the competition and our problem is solved."
"No," Carina said.
"No, what?" Michael asked.
"I'm not going to sanction an op where we simply have Obregon killed by one of the other scum."
"It's not like it's going to be any great loss," Fiona opined.
"All you're going to do is transfer Obregon's distribution network to another dealer," Carina said. "You give me the intel we gather on Obregon and I take him down through the local DEA office."
"He's better off dead," Casey grumbled. Chuck gave him a shocked look. Sarah gave him a smile. She didn't want Chuck to get comfortable with the idea of people getting killed, no matter how much they deserved it.
"You want my help?" Carina asked, "Then I need to get something out of this. Obregon's not a big fish, but if I can take him down in only a few days it will look good enough."
"Carina," Sarah said. "Always looking out for number one."
"That's right, Sarah. We all are, whether we admit it or not. I'm just more honest about it. Besides, how is it any skin off your nose?"
"Can you guarantee that you'll take Obregon and his organization out?" Sarah asked. "Otherwise, he's going to come gunning for us. After all, nothing from Chuck's bug will be admissible in court. It's an illegal wiretap."
"No it won't," Carina said. "One of the local judges… well let's say he owes me a favor. We get the intel, I can get him to back-date a wire-tap that will make it all legal. Or at least, legal enough to hold up in court."
"I still don't like the idea of Sarah posing as one of those mules," Chuck said. "Can't we just go with Casey and Sam putting on the pressure?"
"No," Michael said. "Getting someone into the girls is our best option. If Sam and Casey push too hard, he could just have all the girls killed."
"Including Sarah and Carina if it goes badly," Chuck said.
"Michael," Sarah said. "Give us a minute."
Sarah took Chuck by the hand and led him outside. "Chuck," Sarah said, putting a hand on his arm. "I appreciate your wanting to keep me safe."
"It's too dangerous…" Chuck started to say.
Sarah stopped him with a slight squeeze of his arm. "But it's my job to take risks. This isn't any more risky that dozens of operations I've done before."
"But this isn't your job, Sarah," Chuck implored. "You didn't even want to do this. Casey and I talked you into this."
"It's the right thing to do, Chuck," Sarah said. "You and Casey were right. Those girls need our help. Sometimes, we agents get so caught up in saving the whole world that we forget to save little parts of it. You always care about those little parts. And you're teaching me to care, too."
"Well, then I wish I wasn't doing such a good job if it means putting yourself at risk like this."
Sarah smiled. "Come on, Chuck. I'll be with Carina. Do you really think that there is any situation that the two of us can't get out of?"
"Like Pakistan?" Chuck asked.
"Yeah. Like Pakistan," Sarah laughed. "So we good?"
"Can I still worry about you?" Chuck asked.
"A little," Sarah replied.
Chuck and Sarah went back in and Chuck immediately went over to the worktable and went back to soldering the speaker into the phone.
"We're good," Sarah said.
"I need to go check on some contacts for Fiona's introduction and get a backup strike team on standby," Carina said.
"I'll go with you," Sarah said.
"Don't trust me?" Carina asked.
"As far as I can throw you," Sarah responded sweetly. "Casey, keep an eye on Carmichael."
Casey gave grunt number three (why do I always get the worst jobs).
"And I need to go see about those passports," Sam said.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Casey said.
"Good man," Sam said, clapping Casey on the back. "Ignorance is bliss."
Casey just growled again.
************************************
Casey was sitting in a chair, watching out the window while Chuck worked on the cell phones. Michael was eating a blueberry yogurt (about the only thing other than Sam's beer that he ever had in his refrigerator).
Fiona wandered over to Michael and spoke in a low voice. "So, that Carmichael is kinda cute, in a geeky sort of way. Do you think I'm too old for him?'
"Don't go there Fi," Michael warned.
"Jealous, Michael?"
"Sarah will be."
"What do you mean?"
"Come on, Fi. You've seen the way she looks at him. You mess with him and she'll kick your ass."
"Blonde? I'd like to see her try."
"She'd do it, Fi. My money's on you in a straight up fight, but you make a play for Carmichael there and she'll pull out all the stops."
"Hmmph," Fiona said. "I thought you said he was her asset and she and Casey were protecting him?"
"That's true," Michael said. "But it's clearly become more than that."
"So Michael, when you and she were together in Sarajevo, did you?"
"No, Fi."
"Why not? She's very pretty and you can be such the charmer."
"For one thing, Fi, I had just left you." Fiona swallowed a lump in her throat.
"Michael!" Chuck called.
"Damn," Fiona whispered.
Michael walked over to the workbench. "Is this what you had in mind?"
As much as Michael hated to admit it, Chuck had done a better job of putting together the cell phones together than he could have done. It seemed larger than the last one Michael had prepared. Chuck handed it over and Michael turned it over in his hands.
"What's this on the back?" Michael asked.
"Well," Chuck said. "The one problem with using the cells as a bugging device is battery life. Cell phone users want a small, light phone so battery life is always a trade-off. Gamers, on the other hand, don't worry so much about weight. A little heft makes your portable platform a more stable platform. And since a PSP and a cell phone have the same voltage requirements, I took the add-on battery pack from my PSP and wired it to the cell. Instead of a day, you should get three or four days out of it now. I figured we weren't worried about weight, so the extra battery was a no-brainer."
"That's a good idea, Carmichael," Michael grudgingly admitted.
"One more thing," Chuck said. "All cell phones these days have a built-in GPS transceiver. You generally have to pay to turn it on. I managed to reset this one so that it's on and broadcasting. That way, not only can we listen in, but we can track the cell's location, just like the NSA can do." He spared Casey a glance, but Casey was busy watching the windows.
"You're pretty handy to have around, Carmichael," Michael admitted. "How about the mini GPS transceiver in your watch?"
"That's my next project," Chuck said. He plugged the cell phone into a makeshift charger he had cobbled together and then took off his watch and started examining it.
*********************************
Sam returned a few hours later with two passports: one for a Stacey Brannigan, age 21, of Ames, Iowa; and another for a Brittany Collier, also age 21, of Arlington Heights, Illinois. "All I need is the photos," he said. "They should be good enough to fool Obregon, but they couldn't be used for travel. That would take a lot more time and money than we've got."
"These'll work, Sam," Michael said.
"Hey, what's that contraption Carmichael's got there," Sam said looking over at the table. Michael walked over and picked it up.
"He's improved on our prototype, Sam," Michael said. "Three to four times the battery life and a built-in GPS locator."
"Slick," Sam said. He turned to Chuck. "Think you could build another couple of these while you're hanging around?"
Chuck shrugged. "I suppose I could, but I'd need some more of the battery packs."
"And here," Michael said, "is our mini GPS transceiver."
"Pretty slick," Sam said. "You think we can sew that maybe in the hem of one of their pants or something?"
"I think so. I'm counting on Fi being with the girls so we won't need it, but I'll feel better with a backup." He glanced over at the large man by the window. "I don't think I'd want to face Casey if we lost his partner."
"No," Sam said. "I've seen Casey when he gets wound up. It's not pretty."
Sarah and Carina returned a little while later, carrying a notebook and a large canvas bag. "Here," Carina said. "Here's all the information you'll need to get Fiona set up. Ratbag named Vicente Martinez. We checked it out. He's at his corner on Miami at Tenth."
"Good work, Carina."
"It gets better," Carina said. "We've got a lead on Obregon. Word is he hangs at a club down in Little Havana called Calle Sinco. You may be able to catch him and his car there tonight and plant the bug."
Michael grabbed his keys. "Fiona, you're with me."
"Lovely," Fiona said. "As if I don't get enough contact with scumbags hanging around Sam."
Michael and Fiona were out the door and Sarah and Carina went upstairs with their bag. They came down a little over forty-five minutes later and Chuck gasped in amazement. Sarah and Carina had transformed themselves from beautiful, confident late-twenties to innocent twenty-one year olds. Sarah was wearing fake braces and her hair was a mousy brown instead of her usual golden blonde. She actually reminded Chuck somewhat of the high-school picture he had seen of her at her reunion.
In a way, Carina's transformation was even more amazing, because it was harder for Chuck to think of her as a sweet, innocent girl. Carina wore horn-rimmed glasses and her hair, a much more subdued auburn, was pulled back in a severe ponytail.
"Okay, ladies," Sam said, pulling out a passport camera. "Let's take some pictures."
"Wow," Chuck said to Sarah as he walked with her over to where Sam had hung a sheet as a backdrop for the pictures. "I hardly recognize you."
Sarah gave a nervous sigh. "This brings back some rather unpleasant memories of high school," Sarah admitted.
Sam took the pictures, then sent affixed them to the passports and pulled out a seal stamp with which he pressed the photos into the passports.
"Stacey Brannigan," he said, handing a passport to Sarah. "And Brittany Collier," handing the other to Carina. "Look these over and make sure they're okay, and memorize the information in them."
Sarah opened the passport and looked at the photograph, and grimaced.
"Damn!"
She looked up and saw Chuck looking at his watch. "We're supposed to meet Ellie and Awesome for dinner tonight at seven." He looked up at Sarah, clearly contemplating Ellie's reaction to Sarah's new look.
"We'll make it," Sarah said. "It'll take me a little bit to change and get these damn things off my teeth."
*************************
Almost an hour later, they were on their way to the restaurant. Casey was driving them in his Suburban. Chuck and Sarah were in the back seat. Carina had stayed behind at Michael's place with Sam. They were nearing the restaurant when Sarah suddenly yelled, "Dammit. Casey, pull over."
"What?" Casey yelled. "What is it?"
"We forgot the shells!" she cried.
"What?" Chuck asked.
"Your note to Ellie. It said we were going shelling today. They're going to want to see the shells we collected."
"I swear," Casey grumbled. "Running guns to mujahidin was easier than running an op with Bartowski." He screeched to a halt in front of a little tourist dive and Sarah and Chuck jumped out to go buy a bag of seashells. While Chuck was buying the shells, Sarah ran around the shop the beach and got a little cup of beach sand. Chuck climbed into the car and transferred the shells into a shelling bag. Sarah climbed in and started sprinkling a little bit of sand on various parts of Chuck, like in his shoes and the cuffs of his pants.
"What are you doing," Chuck asked as Sarah sprinkled just a touch of sand in her hair.
"It's the tiny details that sell the story, Chuck," she explained. "If we were out all day hunting for shells, and didn't go back to the condo to change, we would have just a little bit of sand in out of the way places, like your pant-cuffs."
Chuck nodded. Just what he wanted to know. Better ways to lie to his sister.
Casey pulled up in front of the restaurant at three minutes to seven. Chuck and Sarah jumped out and Casey pulled away to park around the block. Moments later, a taxi pulled up in front of the restaurant and Devon and Ellie climbed out. Ellie was looking over her shoulder at the Suburban just rounding the corner.
"You know," she said to Devon after he paid the cabbie. "The driver of that car looked just like John Casey."
"Should I be jealous, babe?" Devon asked. "That's the second time you thought you saw John Casey here in Miami. Have you got John on the brain, hon?"
"Huh," Ellie shrugged. Then she turned to Devon. "You know I only have eyes for you, sweetie," she said. "Oh, look, there's Chuck and Sarah."
Ellie ran over and gave Sarah a hug. Chuck wryly noted that lately, Ellie always hugged Sarah before she hugged him, as if Ellie was doing her best to pull Sarah into the family. "So how was the shelling trip?" Ellie asked.
Chuck held up their bag of just-purchased shells. "I don't know what we're going to do with them all," Chuck said. "Maybe party favors for our annual Talk Like a Pirate Day party?"
Ellie whapped Chuck on the arm. "Shelling, hum? Sarah is definitely pulling you out of your comfort zone. Imagine, my little brother spending all day looking for seashells."
"Well, that's not all we did," Sarah smiled.
"Way to go, Chuck!" Devon said, and held up a hand for a high-five.
Chuck went 'up high' with Devon, then they started toward the door of the restaurant.
"Wait a second," Chuck said. He stopped and took off a shoe, then poured a little bit of sand out of it. Ellie laughed and took Sarah's arm as they continued into the restaurant.
*********************************
After setting things up with Vicente Martinez (he was happy to help after Fiona put a knife to his crotch and threatened to usher him into the ranks of the castrati) and successfully planting the cell phone 'bug' in Enrique Obregon's car, Michael and Fiona returned to his place. After pushing through the line of people waiting to get in, they climbed the steps. Michael halted Fiona when he noted that the door was unlocked.
Michael pulled his gun, slowly pushed the door open, and cautiously crept inside.
He heard some muffle noises and crept farther into the room, and there he saw Sam Axe, in his underwear, a gag in his mouth, handcuffed to the wall above Michael's bed.
Fiona popped her head around Michael's shoulder and smiled at Sam. "Well, Michael," she said. "Looks like we missed the party."
"Mmph, mmph, mmph," Sam replied.
********************************
Sorry. Sorry. I couldn't resist. How can I have Carina in a story and not have somebody handcuffed to the bed in their underwear?