A/N: Well, several members wanted to to know more about Agent 20. Unfortunately, as I said from the very beginning, this is intelligence centered story, so whatever I choose to say more about him now would reveal too much at this point.

Again thanks for the interest. I strongly suspect there is still some fun ahead, especially in chapters 8 and 9 from those that are ready so far. Chapter 7 displays another side of Carina's tremendous agent skills. And Chapter 6 ... well, here it is:

Chapter VI

Don't You Half-lie To Me!

Carina followed Chuck into the kitchen. He was sitting at the table, sipping some coffee. Engulfed by his own thoughts. Not happy ones, she could see that.

Then he looked at his wristwatch and said, "Oh my god, Ellie and Devon are coming back today."

Yeah, Carina knew about that. She was informed by the NSA team, protecting them.

Another, 3-member counter-surveillance group, was tracking the hostile snatching team.

They could easily take these people out. But they were just thugs for hire. Carina needed to know who had hired them. It was somebody who had taken every precaution to hide his identity.

They were still unable to track down the mastermind.

'Yeah, I'll come with you there to the airport,' Carina said, 'NSA people will escort us as well.'

"How are you gonna introduce me to your sister, Chuck?' she nudged him, 'As your new girlfriend, maybe?' She gave him a naughty look.

Chuck was shaking his head, 'No, no, no, I don't think this will bode well with my sister, especially now that she is pregnant. You know she is pregnant, don't you?'

'Of course, we had a team there protecting them.' Carina smiled. 'I know how to do my job.'

'Well, let's tell her that you're just Sarah's best friend from her school years who has come to see her.' Chuck offered. 'Since Sarah is away I'm taking care of you, showing you around until she's back.

'Do you know when Sarah is coming back, Carina?' it had occurred to him to ask. And so he did.

No, I don't, but I expect to be relatively soon,' Carina half-lied.

And it happened again. Chuck flashed, and the lie detector computer program announced it as usual: "Half-truth, half-lie'.

From her answer Chuck quickly figured out which part was the lie this time. Carina clearly knew when Sarah was coming back.

Unfortunately for Chuck, Carina happened to have been watching him at the very time he flashed. It was obvious to her that it was some kind of a flash. It was very short.

'What, what happened?' she inquired, shaking his shoulders, 'What did you flash on, Chuck?'

Uuum, …. aaaaah, eeerm, I don't know..' Chuck was stuttering. He realized however, that he'd been caught red-handed this time.

"Chuck,' Carina yelled at him now. 'I have to know what this is. I'm a trained interrogator, and will find out if you lie to me. So what is it?'

Chuck wasn't going to lie to her, however. He already sensed that somehow Carina was on his side, especially on the big issues, regardless of her sometimes outrageous stunts.

"Carina, why are you lying to me from time to time? I can now sense when you tell me half lies.' He was pointing his index finger to his head. "I have this ability now. And thanks to your 'sincerity', I flash pretty often."

'Ohhh, that's what it was. .... Another ability .... Wow.' She exhaled quietly, 'So, tell me how it works.'

'No, you first. Why did you lie to me about Sarah?' Chuck insisted, 'Remember, I was supposed to trust you 100%, but you have to trust me 100%. So you tell first.' he blurted out.

"Why are you hiding from me that you know when Sarah will be coming back?' Chuck enunciated at every single word.

"Ugh, ok,' Carina was so annoyed now. 'I know about Sarah. She will be coming back tomorrow, Casey will go to Washington. To get briefed on his part of the mission. Happy?'

"Now, your turn.' She winked at him. 'What is it and how does it work?'

Chuck told her about the lie detector program, that was able to detect only half-lies so far.

'Ooh,' Carina was stunned now, 'Great.' She was contemplating the consequences. Great. This is just soooo great.

'Chuck,' she reprimanded him, 'you should've let me know about it immediately, is that clear? What were you thinking?'

The last part reminded him of Sarah who had used the same words so many times, scolding him.

'Yeah, but how can you expect me to tell you such a thing when you're lying to me, well, half-lying, remember?' he tried to excuse himself.

'Uff, it's not important what I'm telling you, if I lie or half-lie, it's better that way. The important thing is that we can use that new ability of yours.'

'Remember,' she went on, 'you are a government issue, like it or not. You chose to upload the Intersect yourself. And I am your handler now. So, you should behave a bit more responsibly. At least until the dust settles. .....Well?' she asked finally.

'Well what?' Chuck asked back.

'Did you flash on any half lies here in what I just told you? And if you don't, then write it down, read it again and stick to it.' she shot out angrily.

Chuck was watching her now, thinking. Then he smiled at her.

'What,' she asked, 'why are you smiling at me?' She was still angry with him.

"That was actually a good conversation, even though you were scolding at me most of the time.' he said firmly, 'Now I feel really relieved because I know I can trust you on the big issues. I didn't flash here.' He pointed at his head again.

'Meanwhile,' he continued, 'you can go on with your little games, super agent, but soon, very soon I'm gonna take over and look after Sarah and myself and do my job.' He sounded even slightly intimidating, probably because he was angry as well.

'Good,' she countered. They were standing against each other with about two inches between their faces. 'I can live with that Agent Carmichael! Last time I checked, we are not married, so I finish my job in a couple of weeks max and we part our ways.... Right?'

Casey had just entered – he obviously had heard part of this conversation.

'Wow,' he smirked. 'Married, huh? Do I sense some tension here? Sexual maybe?'

"Shut up Casey! Both Chuck and Carina had turned and yelled that at him. "Get out of here!'

Casey raised his brows, allowed a "Hmm", turned around and left, snickering. 'That'd be the second most annoying romance in my life. Walker's still the champion.'

They were still staring at each other.

"Well, thanks again for finally telling me about your new ability,' she shot at him. 'After I caught you red-handed.'

"Carina,' Chuck licked his lips, as he was clearly very nervous, 'how do you know exactly when Sarah will be back and that Casey will be summoned to DC? What is going on here?"

"It's above you pay grade…. Well, did you flash on that? Being a lie?' she challenged him.

'Half-lie, I flash only on half-lies.' And how is this above my pay grade?

'Easy, you don't work now. No pay. Zero. So even without giving you further explanation, it's obviously a truth.', she said quickly. 'See, I win.', she said smiling at him and raising her hand sidewards.

'Now, let's go and see if Miss Witherspoon had woken up.' she went on. 'We still have her here, remember?'

'That won't be necessary.' somebody said.

Carina and Chuck both turned their heads.

Yeah, it was her. Cornelia had been listening their tense exchange for some time, standing at the door with her hands crossed on the chest. "You sound like my mom and dad before they split up, you know that, agents ..... super agents ..... whatever.' She said.

'Good tip,' Chuck said. 'That'll save us some unnecessary torture.'

'I concur,' Carina smiled at him. Then she turned toward Cornelia. 'And you are under arrest. For the time being."

'I know my rights.' Cornelia countered. "You can't do that

'Wierd,' Chuck thought, ' Cornelia didn't sound like an Elle Woods fan and impersonator now. Why would you ...' he started.

'I'm sure you do,' Carina shot at her, ignoring Chuck. " With your mom in jail, for several con jobs, I guess you've learned enough about law, at least the criminal side of it, right? Anna, Lisa?' Carina cocked her head, now smiling at the blonde.

Cornelia's eyes were now wide open. So were Chuck's.

'What? She's a con artist?' he exclaimed.

'That was a little rude and somewhat unbecoming for a gentleman like you.' Cora/Anna/Lisa observed, giving him a playful look. 'I prefer to think of myself simply as an artist.'

'Did you really think I wasn't gonna check on you?' Carina went on, ignoring her comments to Chuck.

'I've already attached a GPS tracker to your ankle, if you haven't noticed?'

'Yes. I have.' Lisa, as this was her real name, lied but didn't look down to check. Yeah, she was feeling it now.

'Stay put here if you don't want me to call the Alabama police. I'm sure they'll find the right witnesses to put you in jail for this little ruse of yours there. You must've already heard how merciful Alabama justice can be.'

Lisa's eyes were now wide open, she sat down in an arm-chair without saying anything.

'Good,' Carina went on, 'I hope I finally have your attention.'

Xxx

Early in the afternoon Sarah Walker knocked on General Beckman's door. She had a briefcase, in her right hand. It was chained to her hand.

The general's secretary let Sarah in the waiting room and 15 minutes later she went into Beckman's private office.

'Good afternoon, agent Walker, finally!' Beckman seemed very content now.

Good afternoon, general. Sarah smiled back."As I expected, this is the documentation of 'Operation Natanz'. It is for your eyes only. I've been told that your office has just been swept for bugs, right? .... Another agent will have to take it back to my boss in about 3 hours.'

'Of course, sure, take a seat, please.' Beckman waited for Sarah to unlock the briefcase and hand her the folder.

One of the first documents she saw there was an order for Casey to get back to Washington. Immediately. As part of the Bartowski operation he was now getting incorporated into this new project.

'And for the time being?' Beckman asked. 'Who is gonna provide close protection to the asset,' Beckman inquired. "Only agent Falcone?'

'No, I'm going back to LA now. I got my part of the mission here. Everything's already in place on my side.' Sarah smiled.

'Going back to LA! Yes!'

Xxx

Colonel Casey was looking for a car shop in the ad section of some auto magazine. The spy in him couldn't trust anybody so far with the delicate task ahead – refurbishing his new Vic into something much less feminine.

He was just about to start calling them one by one, just to get a feeling which one he could trust when his phone rang. It was general Beckman.

"General?' Casey started, wondering what could be the reason.

'Colonel Casey, you are ordered to come back to Washington." She said firmly, in anticipation of his reaction.

"But General, who is going to provide close protection of the asset except agent Falcone? According to the new protocol at least 2 have to be close to him unless there is a whole security team … '

'I'm aware of what the new protocol requires,' she interrupted, annoyed to the extreme.

She was the one who had approved it. She was just so irritated that they had kept her out of the loop. But she knew this was standard practice. She was part of other black ops and had seen how people with higher ranks than hers at the time had gotten so pissed off.

'Agent Walker is coming back. Her job here is done. She's probably driving to the airport now. The asset is to be involved in a major international operation and you need to be briefed and take part in the planning of the details of your part. Here, in DC.'

'You should take the first flight to Washington, understood?''

Casey could sense her brow was high up now, even if they were just on the phone so he knew there was no point in protesting.

'Understood, general, first flight.'

The line was off before he could finish. Casey sighed deeply. He wouldn't be able to fix his new car now. At least he'd leave it there in the hotel parking lot, not at his place.'

He called the airport to check for the earliest flight and started packing.

xxx