Chapter III

Another Day, Another Vic – Part II

'Aaaaaaaaaargh!'

Casey had gone apoplectic at the sight of his beloved but obviously quite mortal car, that had just got engulfed by a fireball.

He had one of those mad scientists looks, unable to say a word, tears in his eyes.

'Somebody had tried to mess with my car.' he shouted finally, breathing heavily. 'When I find out who is responsible for this I'm gonna waterboard the perp for at least 48 hours! Kill him! Knee-cap! Castrate! Decapitate!'

He couldn't stop bursting like some deranged version of Vesuvius.

Chuck, now wondering whether to worry about the knee caps or the much more important procreative section, raised both his brows and shoulders.

'Yeah, you do that, Casey, I hope you catch him soon' he shamelessly lied. But he could feel the chills taking over his entire coronary system.

'Where is Carina' Casey growled, roving around.

'She was supposed to take a shower, must be in the bathroom.' Chuck felt some relief in helping the guy even with something so insignificant.

Casey rushed towards the bathroom.

'Casey,' Chuck started, 'I don't think she'll appreciate the intrusion.'

'Shut up, moron, I need to talk to her' Casey snarled and opened the bathroom door without knocking . Chuck was right after him.

All Casey wanted to tell Carina was that he was going out to hunt down the devil that had just returned to earth to ravage his beloved Vic, so the Intersect was again her responsibility.

Carina was in the bath tub, covered with water and foam. She had put wax earplugs in her ears as she had heard the terrible siren as well.

On a small table next to the tub there was a device, identical to the one Casey had in his flat – controlling and monitoring cameras throughout the suite. The feed on the device screen now was from the kitchen, live.

She had seen everything that had happened there, laughing like never before in her life.

Carina noticed the two intruders too late, however. Casey had already seen the gadget. It was showing the kitchen. Seemed like live feed. He grunted.

He took it in his hands.

Carina didn't have the time to think and made a terrible mistake. "Casey, nooooo!", she screamed, stretching her hands toward the device.

Casey was stunned initially, wondering why Carina would mind him seeing the feed. And then it dawned on him.

Aaargh. Chuck had tried to wake him up twice. So maybe it was he who had set the alarm off. It would have been so Chucky.

He wasn't sure, so he pressed the stop button, then 'store', saved the feed on a file and started reviewing.

Fortunately for Chuck, it was one of the latest versions of recording devices in the NSA inventory, it had tremendous storage capacity, allowing big files to be stored. It was almost 3 hours long.

By the time Casey had fast-forwarded to the frames with Chuck setting the alarm off, a lot had happened.

Among other things, Chuck had been able to:

Peek at what Casey was monitoring; get out of the bathroom; enter the bedroom; reach the drawer where Sarah had a copy of her Porsche keys; get out of the hotel; get rid of the watch with the GPS tracker; reach Sarah's car; drive it to a safe distance of 800 yards; and remove the battery from his mobile, so they couldn't track him.

Now he was driving away and away from the damned hotel.

"Chuck", Casey roared like a wounded tiger, face all red and tears in his eyes. 'You're dead man walking! Buy yourself a wheelchair! Say goodbye to your knee-caps! Hey, are you hearing me MORON ….!' The Vesuvius was bursting and bursting.

Casey was looking everywhere but couldn't find him.

Carina was so stunned that it was just now that she tried to figure out some solution.

She hadn't been able to see the unfortunate and premature death of Casey's second Vic as there weren't any cameras pointing to the parking lot. She had already gotten out of the tub and put a towel around.

'Casey, calm down, I'll find Chuck, just calm down.' She was yelling at him. While this had been fun, now it was really getting out of control.

'Grrrrr', Casey had still the look of a really mad scientist, now tormented with a bad case of hemorroides. 'That's the second Vic that Chuck destroys with his own hands. No way. He's dead!'

Carina sighed deeply and said: 'Oh, God, I can't believe I have to do this again.'

'What Falcone, where are you going?' Casey growled after seeing her leaving.

'I'm looking for my keys, John. I'm going out to look for the Intersect, you stay here! Have you thought about what we're gonna tell Beckman when she calls?'

'Beckman-wreckman, I don't care,' Casey, still obsessed with what had happened, obviously couldn't think clearly.

Carina had lied again of course. She went into the bedroom and took something else, not the keys. Then she went back to Casey.

'Listen, John, just calm down, we'll find a reasonable way out of this ...'

But he wouldn't listen.

Carina was still talking to him, trying to soothe the pain. Once she got close enough, her right hand reached Casey's nose again. Psssss.

The aerosol did its part again. Once unconscious, she dragged him to the nearest arm-chair.

Then Carina pulled her mobile out, took a high quality picture of the sleeping Casey and started typing a message:

"Chuck, it's safe for you to come back. I tranqed Casey. Sleeping. See the pic. Come back NOW! It's an emergency, Beckman is looking for you!'

Then she sent both.

Only after another hour and a half and 25 more miles away from the hotel, did Chuck find the courage to put the battery back in his handset and check out what was going on.

He saw the message and the photo, and called back.

'Hey Carina, you did it again, heh? Poor Casey.' Phew, that was close!' he said trembling. 'I haven't felt this way since Colt dangling me.'

'Did I have a choice, ah, Chuck?'

No, she didn't, Chuck shook his head in disbelief that he would approve.

Right and wrong were now changing their places.

40 minutes later he was back there and they were dragging the sleeping Casey to the kitchen again, laying him down on his improvised bed.

They were sitting there now, next to him, wondering what to do.

'I guess we are exactly where we were a few hours ago,' he said shaking his head in disbelief, still looking at the sleeping colonel.

'Yeah, minus one beautiful Crown Vic, limited edition, white leather upholstery, GPS ...', Carina started.

'Yeah, yeah, I get the picture.'

What to do with Casey, when he finally wakes up? They couldn't tranq him forever.

Chuck remembered what Casey had told him the first time, when his first Vic got destroyed.

It was something like 'How about buying me another car.'

Chuck had an idea.

'Carina,' he started, 'how much would a Crown Vic like Casey's cost on ebay or something? I spent most of my money on Ellie's wedding but I think I still have about 2,300. Could this be a reasonable price for a well-groomed Vic like his, aa former … one, aaa I mean former ones?' Chuck remembered that two Vics were now gone.

Yeah, that was the solution, good thinking Chuck.' Carina thought. It's just that with a 1995 Vic limited edition in perfect condition with GPS and everything the bidding would start at five grand, not Chuck's cap of 2,300.

So Carina needed to buy it by herself, provide the money without both Chuck and Casey knowing the amount involved.

The last thing she wanted was somebody to know about her financial situation. Nobody knew anything about it. Even the man Sarah knew as 'Agent 20'.

'Listen Chuck, that's a great idea. Why don't you let me look for the right Vic for Sugar Bear, you go relax or play a game.' Carina suggested.

"No, no, I screwed that up, you know that. It's my responsibility to fix it. Sorry, Carina!' Chuck resisted. He was looking for his laptop now.

She tried again to change his mind but he simply wouldn't listen.

"Oh, no, not again!" Carina deeply exhaled.

'What Carina, is it your stomach again?'

"Yeah, no, actually no."

Chuck just started flashing the lie-detector program in his head, as what Carina had just said amounted to a half-lie.

But it was too late. Carina's hand with the knock-out spray was already under Chuck's nose.

Psssss.

She let Chuck lie down on the couch.

'Idiot' she scolded, 'why didn't you just let me buy the Vic?'

Carina sat down, with her laptop, in an armchair and started browsing ebay and everything else she could think of.

Yeah, she was right. The right Crown Vic in excellent condition had a starting price of $6,400 at ebay. And it was nowhere near the LA area.

xxx

After 2 hours and 45 minutes it was finally over. She had found a Crown Vic in a 'truly awesome condition' owned by some fan club.

They declined to tell her the nature or the name of the club but offered her a virtual tour of the car. It was shining both in and out. It had marvelous dark blue color. The car was as beautiful as was Casey's now dead one.

They explained that they were forced to sell it because of the economic crisis. Needed money to pay the rent. Club members weren't willing to pay their fees now.

It cost her $13,580, which was peanuts considering what she was worth.

She had wired the money immediately and the seller agreed to deliver the car in about 4 hours as they were located in the LA area as well.

Well, all she could do now was wait for the car and hope she hadn't been duped.

Chuck was supposed to wake up about 90 minutes earlier than Casey according to her calculations.

Wrong, Chuck woke up half an hour later than what she expected. Obviously, she had pressed the button more, out of irritation. This was not a life or death situation, so her typical spy instincts must have been off. She shook her head at him again. Idiot.

Once Chuck came back to his senses, Carina offered him some coffee and told him the great news.

He had just started complaining about being tranqed again when Carina interrupted.

'I saved your legs, Chuck, or rather your reproductive function maybe. I got another Vic for Casey, it's 1995, dark blue, perfect condition.' Carina was smiling triumphantly.

"Really? How did you get it so fast?'

'Well, I guess I got lucky, what else can I say? Online trade is the new black these days. Incredible.'

'Aaand,' Chuck remembered, 'hmmm, how … aaa how much ..?

'Aah don't worry Chuck,' Carina smiled, 'I paid 2,500 dollars for the whole thing, the crisis you know. Forcing them to sell everything. They are some sort of a fan club or something. All their prop's on sale.'

Now it happened for a third time. The quick flash. He was looking down, at the floor so she probably hadn't noticed. Chuck was flashing the lie detector program again. And again it said half-true, half-lie.

'Which one was true and which one was the lie, huh, Carina.'

He wrote down her statement while it was still replaying in his head, and then tried to recall the first one. But he couldn't remember her exact words from the previous flash now.

Well, from now on, he would write them down in his mobile. It was time for him to start figuring out Carina's secrets.

Xxx

Early in the evening, one of the NSA people, posing as receptionist in the lobby rang.

'Miss Falcone, there is a young blond woman here looking for you. She says it's about a car that she's sold to you.'

'Oh, yeah Jeffrey, thank you. Tell her I'll be down there in about 5 minutes.'

Carina turned to Chuck. 'Hey, the Vic is here, let's go get the keys. Have a ride, maybe?'

Chuck exhaled deeply. 'Thank God, I hope Casey will love Vic number 3 as much as he did his previous .... erm, partners in life, I guess. Let's go.'

He had entered his bank account some time ago and checked that he had 2,323 dollars. So he was telling her now that he would pay her back the remaining $177 a bit later.

They were in the hotel lobby now. Carina looked around. There was no young blonde there. She rushed to the reception desk. 'Jeffrey, where is the young lady?'

'Ah, she told me she'd be outside with the car. Must be waiting for you there.'

Carina and Chuck raced to the revolving door.

Now, having just gotten out of the hotel, Chuck and Carina were staying next to each other and staring at what was in front of them.

Yeah, there was indeed a young blond girl next to a shiny, shiny Crown Vic. And yeah, it looked like a 1995 model , limited edition. But this particular edition was way too limited.

Both Chuck and Carina exclaimed, almost simultaneously:"Oh, my God!"

Chuck fell on the ground unconscious; Carina put her head between her hands. Mission failed. For the first time in her life, she failed a mission even if it was a stupid, stupid one about some really stupid car.

'Hello, miss Carina, nice to finally meet you. Is your boyfriend OK? He must have really liked the car. My name is Cornelia Stanford, founder and president of fan club "Legally Blonde".' Cornelia smiled and offered her hand to Carina, who was checking Chuck's pulse. He was fine.

She stood up.

Yeah, she could see that. The car had the most beautiful shade of hot pink in history. On top of that it had all sorts of flowers and hearts, painted on it, really beautiful ones, including clovers, just as on Casey's boxers.

But it didn't make her life any easier now. The car looked like a post card or one of those DVD covers of the two movies themselves. Only Reese Witherspoon was missing from the picture.

Well, Cornelia was wearing one of her pinky outfits, and was clearly trying to imitate her manners. Only the chihuahua was missing. Oh yeah, Bruiser had just jumped out of the car and joined the fan club President.

Carina couldn't believe it. 'Mission accomplished, Cornelia,' she gritted through her teeth. You are the first person who was able to fool me in my entire life!'

"What?' Cornelia asked as Carina was still staring at her.

'You like it? It's original, right from Elle Woods' closet. Oh, I see. I'm really sorry, it's not for sale, dear. Not in a million years.' Cornelia was shaking her beautiful head and waving her finger. 'I'd rather starve to death.'

xxx