Usual disclaimers, no rights to any characters portrayed and this is neither the real world nor a Disney Princess tale.
Given the state that Carina at least was in, when they got back to El Castillo they just showed them to the apartment that would be their's until they found something else and went to bed. This was the first chance Sarah and Chuck had to talk about what was said at the restaurant.
"Did you mean it, what you said?"
Chuck nodded. "Of course! I know that they've all been telling you about how I searched for you every day that you were away because I was empty without you…. Well now that you're finally back, I want you to stay with me! Auntie Di was a bitch to pull that stunt in front of Carina and Zondra, but Anna showed me those rules she asked her to look up on the quiet, so I understand why she was pushing, she wants to make sure you're safe, just like I do… Did you mean what you said?"
"YES! I've been dreaming about being be back with you ever since Dad took me away, in fact…. When we were in the bunker, I was looking at Ellie's achievements and thought 'this is one hell of a family I'm marrying into!' I tried to tell myself that I didn't mean that, but I lost that argument damned quick because I don't ever want to be apart from you again! So yes! If you'll have me, I'm your's Charlie!"
Carina and Zondra would have been shocked to know what Sarah was joyously doing that night, because they'd watched her put just about every man who tried to get her to do that in hospital or in the ground for two years, and many of them hadn't been being aggressive, just insistent. The smart ones had avoided injury by running, the lucky ones got off lightly, but most of them got hurt, bad.
Come morning, when Zondra finally got Carina out of bed, they went looking for Sarah, but while she was happy and relieved to have them there, especially Carina, Sarah did not appreciate having to tell Carina to 'Go back and put some fucking clothes on!' Carina was obviously back in the space of trying to wind up Sarah by getting a rise out of Chuck, because she was just wearing a flimsy robe (hopefully with underwear).
Zondra just shook her head at her as she scuttled out, because she'd told her that she was going to piss Sarah off if she tried to play that game here.
When Carina returned, dressed and looking genuinely contrite, Sarah started in on her, telling her in no uncertain terms NOT to try and play her games around her fiancé, her stepfather or Rick Noble, or Skip for that matter, Casey was a big enough boy to take care of himself and if she wanted to have fun with Jeff, that was his business.
Carina was staring at her in shock, they both were actually. "You were serious about that? I thought you two were just pissing about!"
"Have you forgotten that we were kept apart for over eighteen fucking years? I'm not ready to risk losing him again and Chuck feels the same way, so yes, we were fucking serious! Auntie Di thinks that she managed to manoeuvre us into marrying to protect me from seduction missions, because Auntie Mary told them about the old rules that are still on the books that forbid forcing married women into seduction missions or doing anything of the like with their partners, but Chuck knew about that because they got Anna to make sure they still applied… but we're getting married because we can't stand the idea of being apart again, nothing anyone else did!… Speaking of Auntie Mary….. The reason Rick is off limits is that he and Ellie are a couple and he'll be my brother-in-law one day. Ellie is one of the sweetest people I know, but she's also a Navy SEAL with one hell of a temper, you don't want to cross her! And Auntie Mary? You've heard of her, as Frost, and Akela! For that matter Auntie Phoebes, Rick's Mom, is six foot two of piss and vinegar who used to be known as Cleopatra Jones! You don't want to fuck with my family Red, if you push them too far you won't come out alive! and for all the fact that you all too often put on that stupid skank act to piss people off, I do love you, so I don't want you dead! And the reason Skip is off limits is that he's gay and it would just upset him, he's too nice to have to put up with that."
Carina was just staring at her but Zondra snorted. "Ellie is a SEAL? Come on Blondie, it was working up until you tried that!"
When that made Sarah turn on her, she was asking herself why the fuck she opened her mouth. "Just try her Zee! She'll wipe the floor with you…. she always needs more sparring partners actually because not many can keep up with her. Have you ever heard of Raksha Zee?" Zondra nodded "Well Ellie is Raksha!"
Carina looked at Chuck and asked. "If your sister is Raksha and your mother is Frost, who the fuck are you Chuckie?"
Sarah gave her an evil smile. "I would have thought that that was obvious Red… Chuck is Mowgli... he's a SEAL too…. and while we're filling you in on the team, Casey is Baloo, Uncle Bry is Bagheera, and Anna is Rikki, Chuck calls her his pint sized pit bull but I wouldn't suggest you try that because she can kick your arse too… Now are you starting to see what you've joined?"
Carina and Zondra were staring at her, nodding slowly, but something else occurred to Carina. "What about your Mama Sarah? She's obviously one of these people too so who is she?"
Sarah shook her head with a smile. "Mama isn't involved in that side of things much, thank god, but she was a legend in her day, as the Fox, the best analyst the CIA ever had, she generally works on the Information Dominance side of things with Ellie, Skip and Jeff. Chuck, Anna and Auntie Mary work on that side too. Auntie Di commands both sides of the team."
Carina and Zondra had been reduced to standing there, shaking their heads, so Sarah gave an evil grin and said that they may as well see the Dungeon now and led them to the lift.
When they came out of the elevator in the Dungeon and saw the operations centre, Carina and Zondra's 'What the fuck?'s tumbled out as one.
Zondra shook her head as she looked at Carina and said "I don't think we're in Kansas any more Toto!" and matched Carina's grin when she replied "Who are you calling a dog, bitch?"
While they were blown away by B1, Carina and Zondra reacted to B2 the way the rest of the operatives had, running from one piece of deadly hardware to the next like kids in a candy store.
They asked the question that Casey never had though, why were most of markings on the weapons and equipment still in Cyrillic? The argument that they'd obtained the weapons etc via the connections that Mary had made in the time when she was trapped in Alexei Volkoff's world was accepted, as that made sense, but the idea that a fairly large and diverse group of Americans could all read Cyrillic well enough that there was no need to relabel everything? That didn't fly anywhere near as well. While they accepted the explanation given, their expressions said that they wouldn't stop until they worked out what was really behind this.
General Diane Beckman was rather testy by the time she arrived late the next afternoon, for a start her people had spent the last day questioning the ones arrested at the Intersect facility yesterday and examining the equipment (especially the device that had electrocuted Graham's agent), trying to find some proof that Graham had been behind it, but the bastard had covered his tracks too well.
Even with the video recordings her people had been taking throughout, all of the official evidence that they were able to uncover pointed to the agent who died at least being a Fulcrum plant, and Graham's scientists were sticking to the story that they hadn't known half of the people there, so how were they supposed to know that the agents weren't scientists from another area? Her people reported that they'd just looked smug and shrugged when they were told that they would have had to be totally incompetent not to see that those men weren't scientists, because being incompetent wasn't enough to get them charged with anything, and they worked for Graham, so they wouldn't be getting fired either.
Even the surviving agents had solid enough stories to get them released, because their official orders had been to provide covert security for the testing, and they couldn't get away with questioning them more…. Strenuously…. because this issue was attracting a lot of attention and too many people were watching. The one who'd been fried was apparently the only one who had known all the details of the plan to eliminate Chuck, and as far as the others knew that machine was just one of the props they were using to pretend to be scientists.
Most of the equipment was legitimate test equipment, it was just that one device that had been doctored to make it look as though it malfunctioned because it had been damaged when Larkin blew up the facility, but there was nothing obviously wrong with it. Her techs had found a switch which would have fried the machine and destroyed the evidence, but Sarah had stopped anyone getting close enough to activate that switch.
Their orders had obviously been to find out what made Chuck the only one capable of successfully hosting the Intersect, and then make sure that he had a fatal accident with that machine, but the one who had been fried had been a good enough agent to pick up that Chuck had identified some of them at least, so he'd decided to eliminate Chuck before he could talk, because they weren't getting anything useful from him anyway.
What it came down to was that even though she knew with absolute certainty that that bastard Graham was behind this, they didn't have any fucking way to prove it! So he was getting away with it! The only thing the evidence really helped with was squashing Graham's charges that John Casey had attacked and murdered one of the men he had there to provide security without cause, because the video showed the man being evasive when questioned and that he had only received what he was doing his best to have inflicted on Chuck, so the recording, along with the tech's reports about how the machine had been doctored to electrocute whoever was hooked up to it, proved that John had in fact saved Chuck from being murdered! Graham wasn't at all happy to see the way Walker had been working with Casey in that recording, but he didn't say anything because he still wanted to get her back under his control, that was why he'd ordered Bartowski eliminated after the testing was done, because without the Human Intersect there would be no Human Intersect project, so the conditions of that order he was forced to accept would no longer apply and she'd be returned to the CIA.
And then, to top it off… After she'd spent almost a full day searching in vain for proof of that bastard's guilt and been forced to agree with the DNI and the President that while they all knew that he was guilty as sin, there wasn't a damned thing they could do about it!…. she was here, crammed into a rank old Air Force C-21A with half a dozen guards who couldn't carry a conversation if you held a gun to their heads! Some of them were hunky enough and she probably would have found a way to have some fun with them twenty five years ago, even fifteen years ago for that matter, but now they just pissed her off!
The only thing about the last twenty four hours that she could feel happy about was the memory of the Administrator of the DEA's face as he was being forced to acknowledge receipt of the Presidential Order to release Carina Miller to the Human Intersect Project, and seeing Mike kick him in the arse to make him execute those orders now! Bob was never going to be a problem, he was a good man, and as she knew he would, he'd launched an investigation into how an agent of Zondra Rizzo's calibre had been pushed aside and buried in nickel and dime gang investigations so much of the time after the CAT Squad was disbanded, she'd been doing more important work than that when she became an agent well over a decade ago!
She suddenly smiled as she remembered that there was another thing she could be happy about, managing to manoeuvre Chuck into proposing and Sarah into accepting that proposal. Those two would never be happy unless they were together, but if they'd worked out that she'd set them up they would have refused on principle. She hadn't wanted to use the fact that marriage would get Sarah out of being ordered to be her targets' and partners' fuck toy, but she would have if she had to…. she was just glad that she didn't have to, as it was bound to have gotten messy.
To avoid all the paperwork that damaging one or more of her protective detail would have required, Diane told them all to shut up and she slept the rest of the way to LA. She was a little mollified to see John and Jeff waiting with the stretch Towncar and Chuck's marvellous Lincoln Continental Stretch Convertible, so the C-21A was released to return to DC and she told her protective detail to get in the Towncar with Jeff while she settled into the back of the Continental. She was tempted to tell John to lose them, but she couldn't do that to Jeff, so she just relaxed for the ride to Pasadena.
When they arrived in El Castillo, her protective detail tried to argue when they were told to park themselves in the lounge in the Shiloh Security Storage offices while the General went off somewhere else with the people she was calling 'her team', but they were reminded of how she'd gotten the name 'Old Ironpants' when she dressed them down and then stormed off.
Chuck had caught Casey's expression as Carina and Zondra were asking questions about the Cyrillic markings and saw that the fact that he'd held off asking about that himself didn't mean that he hadn't been thinking it, and that didn't bode well. He could also see the other questions that Carina and Zondra didn't know enough to ask yet going through his head, like just how had this group of extraordinary people come together? A couple at this level coming together, that's life, but a group this big? That had to be planned.
When Auntie Di came down to the Dungeon, he took her off to a meeting room with Sarah and his mother to discuss how they were going to handle the fact that John, Carina and Zondra all knew that they weren't being told the whole truth about the team and that was going to cause trouble down the track. It didn't take long to agree that they needed to tell them what was going on, and Mary agreed that it would be best to tell them that she'd been a sleeper when she came to America too.
In a way it was the best time to do this, because the only core member of the group they were missing was Uncle Roan (Dad didn't count), as they had brought most of their best people in from around the country when Sammie arrived and they were looking at a fight with Graham, so they could just sit everyone down and lay it all out. John in particular would most probably have an issue with the Russian defectors (he saw things a little too black and white sometimes), but they were planning on using the fact that he'd accepted the other ones who had been burned and show that their circumstances weren't that much different.
The discussion got a little heated at times, because it turned out John had a bigger issue with the ones who had been literally or effectively burned by the American agencies and military, but eventually John conceded that their reasons for disappearing like that were at least as valid as his had been, probably more. He had to laugh when he saw that 'Thebes Security' was actually a combination of Phoebe's real name and the identity she'd made famous as an operative.
He did have an issue with Mary having been a KGB sleeper up until the mid seventies, but had to concede that he knew that she'd been working for America for the last sixteen years at least, because he'd been working closely with her for that long! So he let that go as well.
With that out of the way, John went through all of their qualifications and shook his head, all up they had about seventy five 'friends', of which about two thirds had been high end special operations operatives (many them Russian, which explained the Cyrillic weapons markings), with most of them functioning as intelligence operatives at times (the same way both he and Bry Mills had started actually), and about a third had been high end intelligence operatives, with most of them operating in special operations functions at times. They also had over a dozen high end analysts who'd been burned because they'd uncovered intel that they weren't supposed to.
Over a third of them were Russian, or ex-Soviet at least, nearly a third American and Israelis made up about half of the rest. A handful of other people, like Rick and Vicky, who were working for Auntie Di on the books made up the rest of it. It didn't take John long to come to the same conclusion the General had, this was one hell of a formidable team they had here!
Once the new team members had been filled in on and integrated into the group, Diane disgustedly conceded that she had to get back to DC, but she wasn't in the mood to sit in the cabin with those lumps again…. She suddenly turned to Chuck. "What's the range of the Twenty Eight after all those changes you spent millions on Chuck?"
Sarah was looking at him. "Millions?"
He shook his head. "She's exaggerating! It was only about one and a half million, give or take, all up and that's including the new glass cockpit and fly by wire systems to allow remote operation, side stick controls, new wings and tanks and the propfan…. As for the range, it's well over three thousand miles at fast cruise now Auntie Di, why?"
"Because you never got me certified on the Thirty Seven, but I am certified on the normal Twenty Eight, and the flight to DC and a few take offs and landings should give me enough flight hours to update that certification to include the new systems, controls and propfan you fitted! Who's willing to come along as the certifier and bring it back afterwards?"
"The Thirty Seven would get you back quicker Auntie Di, and be a lot more comfortable too."
"I know that! But if I get stuck in the cabin with those idiots up there again I'm going to shoot one of them, and I don't need the paperwork!"
"You're not shooting anyone in my plane!"
"Oh, so it's your plane now is it? I thought it was our plane?"
"It's my plane when I'm talking to some crazy old lady who's talking about shooting holes in it!" He laughed. "I'd come with you Auntie Di, but I don't think we could get away with the Human Intersect disappearing for most of a day just yet."
"I know that Honey, but just about everyone here is certified on the Twenty Eight, surely someone can come with me?"
Anna shared a look with Chuck and nodded. "I'll come with you General, people don't pay as much attention to me and the Twenty Eight's much nicer to fly with the Propfan setup, a hell of a lot quicker too, so the trip back won't be so bad."
She nodded with a smile. "Thank you Anna."
With that she called her office to get the flight plans from Bob Hope to Ronald Reagan and an escort to pick them up at Ronald Reagan organised while Casey called the airport to get the Twenty Eight brought out of the hangar, fueled up and readied (they had an on-call mechanic service there).
Auntie Di was wearing an evil grin and civilian trousers (being the same size as her sister was handy) as they got into the elevator, because her protective detail was going to be getting one hell of a shock when they got to the airport and saw what they were flying back to DC in.
She was right about that, as their shock at the sight of the plane was only exceeded by that of the General climbing into the pilot's seat to start going through the pre-flight check lists with Anna.
Getting interrupted to be asked what that thing on the cargo door was pissed her off so she snapped. "That's the jump door, which reminds me…" She craned her head around to shout out the cabin door. "Colonel Casey?"
He popped his head in straight away as he was just outside with Chuck and Sarah talking about the modifications to the plane. "Yes Ma'am?"
"Do you have any parachutes here?"
He pushed down his grin, because he had a good idea where this was going. "I believe so Ma'am, why do you ask?"
"Because I'd like to borrow some in case of back seat drivers!"
"I'm sorry Ma'am, we can't allow that because you don't have any jump masters on board who are qualified for the setup we have on the Twenty Eight."
"Very well Major, I'll just have to hope they stay quiet then, because I hear that the passengers don't get drowned out as much as they used to be with this new Propfan setup."
"No Ma'am, it's much quieter with this setup."
With that, he watched them going through the check lists and then had Anna seal the door behind him as he left, as soon as they had clearance they taxied out and took off. John was laughing about how the protective detail had been deathly quiet after listening to their discussion about getting rid of back seat drivers.
Sarah had noted how much quieter their Twenty Eight was than the other ones she'd been on and around, and that it took off and climbed one hell of a lot quicker too. She'd heard that the Propfan versions of these planes were fast but she was willing to bet that this one was faster than the 'ordinary' Propfans. Between the obvious performance improvements and that glass cockpit which was even better than the Air Force jets she'd flown... oh yeah, she definitely wanted to fly this one!
Anna came back the next morning, telling them how much the General loved the Twenty Eight the way it was now and laughing because her protective detail hadn't said a word for the entire flight, even when she asked them how they were doing when she came back to use the toilet, they'd just nodded.
With the effort it had taken to override the ones arguing that a something as important as the human intersect needed to be controlled by their intelligence masters at the CIA and Graham winding up the old school types with his heavily edited stories about how Beckman had allowed her Pit Bull to arbitrarily cancel the approved testing of her supposed Human Intersect and then kill one of the people providing security for the tests, they had quite a few people in DC demanding to see proof that this 'human intersect' could deliver. That was why, just after Carina and Zondra joined the team, Sarah and Casey were in Casey's apartment, looking at a screen that was split to show Diane, and Langston Graham. Graham made no attempt to cover up the fact that he was angry about everything that had happened, especially having Sarah taken out of his control, and was demanding that they come up with results on this.
They knew that if they weren't successful, he'd be running all over DC, fanning the fires and whipping the mob into a frenzy about how much money Beckman was wasting and how she was flaunting the authority of the established order, so that he could drag her down. From that, it appeared that their fears about him losing all objectivity were justified, because he seemed to have forgotten that if he tore Auntie Di down, the CIA would lose the services of the Special Projects Group, who they depended on for much of their intel, but the fact remained that they had no choice, they had to play his game.
All they had to go on for this assignment he'd brought to them was the report that there was a trail of suspicious deaths stretching across Europe and the middle east that was supposedly heading for Los Angeles, though Graham claimed that he had no idea where that particular piece of intel had come from. He also claimed not to know where the intel that many foreign intelligence agencies were apparently very interested in whatever this was had come from. It wasn't hard to see why Graham would be pushing something like this on them to resolve, because it would take a miracle for them to come out of it looking good. The video-conference was wound up with the General saying that she was sending through everything they had been given.
They swore when they saw just how little Graham had provided them to work with, but printed out the images and called for Chuck to come up and look at them. Chuck was drawing a blank and getting frustrated, when his gaze fell on the newspaper sitting on the coffee table. At that moment he was very grateful to Casey for being a dinosaur and holding onto the old ways, because the newspaper's front page article about an art auction that night triggered a flash of information that tied what Graham had given them together, and brought up other information that they needed.
"Ah. Guys? Does the name La Ciudad mean anything to you?"
Both Sarah and Casey had been involved in assignments that had had some connection to the elusive arms dealer known as La Ciudad, so he certainly had their attention with that. They sat down and recorded what he'd come up with, then Chuck moved out of range of the camera while they they initiated another video-conference with Diane and Graham (or rather, they contacted her and she linked Graham in) to discuss what Chuck had come up with.
Graham insisted that Chuck go to the auction to identify La Ciudad, and while she agreed in principle with Sarah that the danger to Chuck wasn't justified, Diane knew far better than her just how capable he was of looking after himself and others and the fact remained that no-one else had any chance of identifying La-Ciudad, so she made a show of reluctantly agreeing to the need for him to be there. Once they'd laid out the plans for the operation and disconnected the links, Chuck came forward to discuss what they were going to do. The time frame was too tight to get many people into the auction, all they could manage was Chuck and Sarah as guests and Casey as a bartender, though they'd have Carina, Zondra and half of the Thebes Security team on-site to provide backup. Chuck decided to use his Navy identity, Charles Carmichael, as it shouldn't be known outside of the U.S. military, while Sarah went with one of her core cover IDs, Rebecca Franco.
Ellie and Anna took Sarah to find a dress, because they knew what Chuck had in his wardrobe and they knew him best, so they could help her pick out something he'd like, and would go with what he had. They all laughed at the saleswoman who tried to convince Sarah that the flaming red dress she was trying to flog would go with everything and suit every occasion, and then they left to find a store where the staff could understand what 'understated' and 'elegant' meant. After that they spent a couple of hours looking through better stores until they found the right dress, and the right shoes, jewellery and clutch to go with it.
Even with the open limit cards she'd had to use with the CIA, Sarah lost her breath when she saw what that dress cost but Ellie laughed, pointing out that she couldn't wear a cheap dress when Chuck was wearing top of the line Armani, but while a good suit that was worn enough to show familiarity said that a man had money, a lady always had to have a new dress for a major event. This showed more familiarity with the rules for these types of functions than she would have expected from Ellie, so Sarah just looked at her and she laughed again. "Who do you think went to these things when we had a mission Sarah? Uncle Roan gave up on John after he'd failed him from Seduction School twice because he couldn't learn how to dress or behave as old money, so it had to be Chuck, and Anna or I as his partners, so we've all collected nice wardrobes for ourselves over the last ten or twelve years."
Sarah just shook her head and they headed back to El Castillo.
The professional level hair and makeup station in the Dungeon apartment was another surprise, and by the time they were ready to leave she felt like a million dollars, which wasn't that surprising seeing as the outfit she was wearing cost at least ten to fifteen times what the ones the CIA set her up in had.
The rest of them were in place by the time that they pulled up at the event in the stretch town car, but things went awry before they even entered the event, as some klutz bumped into Chuck on the steps leading up to it and smeared a canapé on his shirt. Chuck went to try and do something about it in the mens' room, but while he was in there, seeing the man washing his hands beside him in the mirror triggered a flash of a number of images related to those he'd seen for La Ciudad. The man noticed the look he gave him as a result of that flash and made a snarky comment, so Chuck gave some platitudes and left hurriedly to get to Sarah to tell her that the next man coming out of the mens' room had something to do with what they were there for.
She swore when she realised that she was going to have to try and get some information out of him, and the others listening in grinned at her words, and worried tone, as she said "I'm going to have to work him a little to get any information out of him, are you OK with that baby?" They also smiled and nodded at Chuck's response "Yes, of course, just be safe!" with the sound of a kiss.
Unfortunately, the man had been looking for Chuck as he came out and he saw him with the stunning blonde, so when she went to work him, she ended up with a pistol pressed into her side as she was escorted from the room. Casey stopped Chuck from going after them, pointing out that he couldn't be seen doing anything, and that he needed to stay here and try to spot La Ciudad. As he left, Chuck grabbed his arm and bit out "Get her back safe!" Casey nodded and took off, a little disturbed by the threatened mayhem clear in Chuck's tone if he let anything happen to her.
Chuck downed the drink Casey had made him and started to circulate, as he'd drive himself mad with worry if he stood at the bar thinking about what may be happening to Sarah. He soon found himself in front of the picture which had been prominent in the flashes he'd had that morning, but it was in a different frame, which in turn prompted further flashes which showed how many small containers of plutonium had been hidden inside the other frame (and that it had been invented by the British SIS for the specific purpose of moving things like that around the world undetected), and dispatches which showed where that plutonium had gone to.
At that point he was interrupted by hearing "Beautiful painting, no?" He turned to smile at the Latin beauty, Malena, who'd spoken, making small talk until the music of the tango started. Malena looked so wistful as she said that she loved to tango that Chuck decided that he could look around the room as he danced, and it might get his mind off what he was hearing over the damned earwig, so he led her onto the dance floor. Malena was quite a good dancer, but he was more than a little uncomfortable with the way she was rubbing up against him and what she was whispering throatily to him, making it quite clear what she had in mind after the dance. When he ended the dance with a dip though, she threw her head back with an excited laugh and her hair fell away from her neck to expose a scar that triggered enough information flashes to confirm that whoever that Brit in the bathroom was, he wasn't La Ciadad, because he currently had her in his arms.
Meanwhile, Sarah was being held captive up on the roof, and she was being subjected to something that was more a sexual assault than a search, being felt up by one of the goons while the other one held her inappropriately and the one in charge laughed, egging them on. The only reason they hadn't died yet was that Skip had passed on her signal to their waiting support team to hold off until she'd gotten some information out of these slimey limeys. The man who Chuck had seen was demanding to know who she was again when Casey burst through the door, identified himself as a Federal agent and told them to surrender.
That was where it got strange, because the one in charge arrogantly identified himself as British Intelligence and was adamant that they had full authority to be here and that, as per agreements between the proper authorities, this was their case so he must leave now (ignoring the fact that his men were basically in the process of sexually assaulting a woman right there in front of them). Casey repeated his demand that they drop their weapons (adding 'and let that woman go!'), but the man just repeated that this was their case and told him to get out. When Casey repeated his demand the third time and the Brits raised their guns at him, their intentions obvious, Sarah made her move, breaking free of the goon who had one arm wrapped around her and was squeezing her breast painfully, and she did a fair bit of damage to him in the fifteen to twenty seconds before she killed him. The other two ignored Casey then as they swung their guns towards her, and the support team opened up with their suppressed AS VAL assault rifles, shooting away their guns (and most of the hands holding them) first, then shredding them, it was all over within twenty seconds.
Casey hurried over to the Brit in charge, demanding to know who they were working with in an attempt to get something from him before he died, but the man was still adamant that they were properly authorised to be there because of the agreement between their boss and the Director of the CIA, he died saying that but they had it all recorded, everything from the moment Sarah was taken up to the roof by the three Brits. Their support team had been waiting in a room upstairs, so as soon as Jeff and Skip identified that she was being taken to the roof, they high tailed it up there to get into position. Skip told Sarah that the team was waiting upstairs and passed on her order for them to wait, as she was hoping to get some information from the Brits, but as soon as they got to the roof, the one in charge just launched into demanding to know who she was and what she was doing there (without identifying himself, he only did that after Casey identified himself as a Federal agent). When Sarah kept up the act of being just a frightened woman who didn't know what was going on, he'd chuckled and said. "I think we better see what she has on her, don't you lads?", and that was when the 'search' started.
Just as the man expired, Jeff said that Chuck was being taken out of the auction room and from the dialogue they were hearing, he was in trouble. Sarah went to find the XR40 (a Boberg XR9-S modified to take and fire .40 S&Ws) pistol from her thigh holster on the Brit who searched her's body, but Ellie stopped her, handing her a Glock 20 and saying… "This will be more use if you have to fight, just make sure I get both of you back in one piece Sarah!" Sarah hugged her and ran down the stairs, with Casey on her heels.
Things hadn't been going too well there either, because while Chuck was trying to keep Malena occupied with small talk until the others got back, one of Larkin's frat buddies from Stanford had stumbled up, drunk off his arse and all but shouting at him "What the hell are you doing here Bartowski? Didn't you get the message when your girlfriend dumped your arse and moved up to Bryce the moment they kicked you out of Stanford for cheating? You don't belong in our world you loser!" Chuck shut him up with a nerve pinch but the damage was already done, he'd caught the signal she gave so it was no surprise when he felt a pistol being pressed into his back.
While he was sure that he could get out of this with little risk of injury, there was zero possibility of doing that in public without exposing himself as more than he was supposed to be, so when she suggested that they take this to her room he just went along with it. On the way up to Malena's room though, he realised that he couldn't afford to be seen in action by Malena or her men either, because he'd be exposed as soon as they went into custody, Shit!
Malena was having fun taunting Chuck while he kept up the frightened civilian act, saying that he'd been trying to impress his date, but she'd dumped him for some rich guy as soon as she caught him out (he was banking on the fact that with their dress sense, they couldn't tell a high end Armani from a knockoff). When she decided that he didn't have anything else to tell her, she started slowly screwing a suppressor onto her pistol and he was thinking that he'd have to let them see what he could do, but then a thumping outside the door caught her and her guards' attention.
They called out to the guard outside the door, and when he didn't answer, they started bringing their pistols up so Chuck hissed "Get down!" into his mic, calling "Guards at two and three o'clock from the door!" as they started firing and he kicked the chair he was tied to over. He'd broken the chair apart and freed himself within fifteen to twenty seconds, and he surged up to knock out La Ciudad with a blow to the base of the skull. By that time they'd taken out the guards in the room using his targeting information so he called them to cease fire, going to let them in when they did so.
They came up with a story about a shoot out between some drug dealers and the DEA and FBI strike team who came in to take them down (using the Thebes Security team to pose as them, of course). Diane organised cleaners to come in and make everything look the way it had, and arranged for a C-21A from Edwards to get to Bob Hope Airport ASAP, along with trusted FBI agents to take custody of the prisoner and the Brits' bodies from the 'FBI' strike team who delivered them to the airport. One of the 'FBI' strike team also handed over an envelope with British SIS agents' credentials and guns.
By the time the prisoner and contraband was handed off, Diane had filled the DNI in on what had happened and sent him the videos of everything that had happened on the roof, and Sarah and Casey were in a video-conference with Diane and Graham (with the DNI hiding the fact that he was linked in). Graham was looking a little smug as he pointed out that their team had almost lost the Human Intersect, so Sarah went to town, saying that they would never have been separated from him if it wasn't for those foreign operatives who had taken her away at gunpoint and who had for some reason been insisting that they had authority to operate on U.S. soil, and in fact that this was their operation and the U.S. Federal agents should stand down.
Graham went quiet at that, and Diane asked whether he knew anything about their claims? He hesitated as he tried to think of a way out of admitting that he was aware of the Brits' presence, but he couldn't, so he said.
"The head of the British SIS and I have had a gentleman's agreement for some time to allow each other's agents to operate on their soil."
"Has the Director of National Intelligence signed off on this 'gentlemen's agreement' Director? Is the DNI even aware of it?"
"No, the agreement was made before that role was created."
"And you didn't feel it necessary to advise your superior of agreements that you'd unilaterally made with a foreign power about operations on U.S. soil after the DNI's role was created?"
"It slipped my mind."
"What of this claim of their's that this was a British SIS operation so U.S. Federal agents had no authority to intercede on U.S. soil? Was that something else that slipped your mind?"
"We never specifically discussed the current operation coming onto U.S. soil, but the nature of the agreement is that agents will be permitted to follow through on any on-going operations."
"You seem to have omitted all of this from the briefing that you gave us Director, in fact you specifically informed us that you had no idea of what was involved here, that information would have been quite useful to my team in handling this matter."
Graham tried to stare her down. "That information had no bearing to the operation you were engaged for!"
Diane glared at him. "The facts of the matter say otherwise Director!" She paused to try and calm herself. "We shall see what the DNI's opinion is on this Director, but the evidence I have here is saying that you deliberately attempted to sabotage my team, and through withholding significant information, you put at least three members of my team's lives at risk, this is not acceptable! It will be interesting to see that the Brits have to say when we return the bodies of their men…"
"What? Your people have murdered the representatives of a friendly power who were here on an authorised operation? When the British government hears about this they'll be in one of their black sites for the rest of their lives, unless a more direct approach is taken! You'll be finished too Beckman!"
At that point the DNI activated his screen. "I'd be careful what you say Director, because at the moment you're the one who's the most likely to be going up on charges!"
Graham had murder in his eye as he glared at Diane, but the DNI ignored that as he went on. "Agent Walker was taken at gunpoint to the roof by these individuals, and once up there they proceeded to essentially sexually assault her, while repeatedly demanding to know who she was and what she was doing there without ever identifying themselves to her. For this reason Agent Walker endured this treatment without breaking her cover as a civilian until after Major Casey had arrived, identifying himself as a Federal agent and ordering them to surrender. Instead of surrendering however, these individuals then identified themselves as British Intelligence, insisting that they were authorised to be there and that this was their operation, and telling him to leave. Meanwhile they continued to handle Agent Walker inappropriately. Agent Casey repeated that he was a Federal Officer and again ordered them to surrender, to no avail, and when he attempted a third time they raised their guns at him with deliberate intent, so at that point Agent Walker dealt with the one holding her so that she could come to her partner's aid. When she did that the remaining two British agents turned their guns on Agent Walker so their support team put them down to protect her."
Graham shook his head. "This is obviously nothing more than a fiction that General Beckman's agents have concocted in an attempt to cover up their murder of a friendly power's agents Sir!"
The DNI looked grim. "It is most definitely not fiction Director, because I have watched multiple video viewpoints of this event! Which brings us to this!" He hit a key to play the video segment of the SIS agent's dying words about the agreement between the head of the SIS and the Director of the CIA, then went on.
"This, and your comments to General Beckman earlier, represent a serious breach of protocol and your duties of disclosure, and proof that you have grossly exceeded your authority Director. You never had the authority to authorise any foreign power to operate on U.S. soil! That always has, and always will be a decision that the President must make, I am quite sure that you were aware of that and that was why you attempted to conceal your actions when the Director of National Intelligence office was created above you. I will be seeking confirmation from my predecessor on this, but did you ever inform him that you had taken it upon yourself to grant foreign powers leave to operate on U.S. soil Director? I will not use the word 'authorise', because as I said, we both know that you never had the authority to do that!"
"I was operating under the understanding that it was part of my remit as the Director of Central Intelligence sir."
"I will be requiring you to identify precisely which part of the description of the role of the DCI that you got that understanding from Director, because I am quite sure that I never got that understanding from anything I've read in your job description…. Now, on to another matter…. Did you also agree to allow the British to smuggle weapons grade plutonium into the United States, in breach of all nuclear agreements? Before you answer, please remember that we now have access to all manner of information that we didn't prior to the Intersect Director."
Graham knew that he was in deep shit now, because this bastard had all but said that they had proof of this. "I never specifically agreed to that sir, but the SIS may have interpreted it that way when we agreed that they could follow the operation through to the end, and I believe that they were forced to use the expected grade of plutonium in order to pass tests being done by any prospective buyers."
"So that is a yes. I am quite disturbed and disappointed by this whole business Director, and I am sure that the President will be just as disappointed when I advise him on this! Do you know where that plutonium is at the moment?"
Once again, he was implying that they did, so it was too dangerous to try and lie about it. "I believe that it is currently in the British Consulate in Los Angeles sir, they were planning on returning it to the Britain by diplomatic pouch."
The DNI shook his head at him. "I want details of every agreement you've made with foreign powers Director, whether they be general or related to specific operations, and I want them now!"
"I can't discuss things of this nature in front of these people sir..."
"It will be public knowledge soon enough Director, because I can assure you that the President will be formally cancelling each and every one of those agreements with the relevant heads of state, so talking in front of people who are cleared as high as you and I isn't an issue, talk! And I better not find out down the track that any more agreements have 'slipped your mind'!"
Graham spoke for over an hour, detailing every agreement he'd made that was still in effect. It was obvious that he wanted to kill Diane, the DNI and everyone involved in this, but there was no way out of this. When he was done, he gritted out. "will that be all... sir?"
The DNI had what he wanted, so he was a little more mellow now. "I think so Director, unless you have something General?"
She kept her face impassive as she said "Just this sir." and handed Graham the bill for the operation.
"What? This was a trial operation, you can't expect me to pay this!"
The DNI cut in. "I never saw any indication in the documentation that this was anything other than a genuine mission Director, and it has bagged us La Ciudad…." He stopped to think for a moment. "General, make arrangements to take La Ciudad into custody the moment she arrives at Andrews... We'll hang onto her until we find someone to pick up the tab for this, but I don't see us having any trouble finding someone to pick up the cost of the operation to get a prize like that if Director Graham is unwilling to do so. I'm sure that Bob would jump at the chance…... "
Diane schooled her expression as she said. "Yes sir" but Graham cut in.
"Wait a minute! This was the CIA's operation so we will be getting La Ciudad, but these charges are ridiculous! Over Twenty Thousand for a dress, over Three Thousand for shoes, Twenty Five thousand for jewellery, Six Thousand for an Armani suit, nearly Sixty Thousand for a Towncar?"
"As you know Director, the time window between your... request... that my agents go in to locate and apprehend La Ciudad, and the event that we believed that La Ciudad would be attending was only a matter of hours. We couldn't ship what was required to Los Angeles in that time frame and all the rental limousines were already booked out so they had to run around and buy whatever they needed. Agent Walker, as an experienced CIA Agent, pointed out that appearances are all important in a mission of this nature as they would fail if they were rejected because they didn't project the right image, so she took Mister Bartowski shopping for a suitable outfit, then found something that matched for herself. They certainly looked the part of a successful couple when they arrived."
"Don't try to pull that General, they just bought all the most expensive labels they could find because someone else was picking up the tab!"
"But Agent Walker said that the outfits she was issued by the CIA were always designer labels?"
"Not real labels for god's sake! We have people making up knockoffs all the time! Anyway, the CIA isn't going to pay for their fancy wardrobes, they can return them and get the money back, and jewellery and the car too!"
"I'm afraid that that isn't possible Director, because Agent Walker's dress was all but torn off of her when she was being sexually assaulted by those British agents, and Mister Bartowski's suit was destroyed while he was being tortured by La Ciudad. The necklace was also damaged and some of the jewels were lost when it was torn off of her and we have been given a quote of around five thousand to restore it to the value it was, so we'd only be able to recover about twenty thousand there. We can attempt to sell the car and return what we can get for it, but I'm afraid that that isn't likely to be what they paid for it, because they were in such a hurry to get ready for the mission that they had to pay the asking price, and if we have another operation on a similar timeframe we're likely to have to go out and buy another car for that…. Hmmm, I am prepared to absorb half of the cost of the car to retain it for that eventuality, but as you are aware from the terms you agreed to to engage the Human Intersect team, it is a strictly pay as you go operation at the moment because we must recover the costs of any operations from the people who engage us as we as yet have no on-going budget allocations for our operations."
Graham was about ready to explode at that, he was well aware of the terms, he just hadn't expected to be had over a barrel like this, but he was in enough trouble as it was. "Very well General, I will agree to your retaining the car on those terms, with the understanding that the CIA will not be charged for another car on any of these operations, I'll take that twenty thousand for the jewellery and from now on, the CIA will supply whatever they wear for any operations that you do for us!"
Diane was struggling to hide her smile of triumph. "That is understood Director, if you'll just wait a minute I will adjust the figure for the car and jewellery…."
She went on as she adjusted the invoice and printed a new one. "You've noted, I hope, the one week payment terms and late payment penalties Director? I apologise for that but I believe that they were written in by the ODNI's accounts people to comply with some standard frameworks that are coming in."
Graham stopped just short of snatching the invoice off of her and storming out, but he bit out "Sir, General" before he left in much the same way he had in his last meeting with these people.
Once he was gone and the door was sealed behind him, the DNI shook his head. "I think you better watch your back with the Director from now on General, he lost a good deal today, and even more in the last week, and I believe that he will most likely be laying the blame for all of that at your feet."
Diane just nodded. "Yes Sir."
He turned his attention to Sarah then. "Please allow me to formally apologise for your treatment at the hands of those British agents, Agent Walker… Though actually I believe the people who need to formally apologise are the Brits... Yes, I will get the President to make that another requirement when they hand over the plutonium that they have at their Consulate. The President has daughters, so I don't see him letting something like that slide after he sees the video of what happened on that roof..."
When Sarah went to say something he shook his head. "I'm sorry Agent Walker, but the President at least needs to see that video, because it will be a key part of convincing him to formally revoke all those illicit agreements that the Director made. I will do my best to restrict it to only those people who need to see it though."
She nodded resignedly. "Yes sir, thank you."
"It's a pity that dress was destroyed, you looked quite lovely in it when you first arrived on the roof. I must say that you have expensive tastes though, please promise me that you'll never go shopping with my wife and daughters, I can't afford that sort of thing on a government salary!"
That brought a smile back to Sarah's face. "Oh it wasn't me who chose the dress sir, it was… the General's fashion consultant."
He turned his attention back to Diane. "Fashion consultant?"
"The daughter of a friend who's living in Los Angeles sir, La Ciudad's involvement made this an important operation, and as Agent Walker said the right image is everything with those people, so as Nora is part of that crowd I asked her to help ensure that Mister Bartowski and Agent Walker looked the part. I must admit that I almost fainted myself when I saw the bill, but as you said, they certainly looked like they were meant to be there."
He nodded at that, and wound up the meeting so that he could make arrangements to get in to see the President straight away to deal with the situation Graham had put them in.
When it was back to just them and the link was secure, Sarah smirked at the screen. "You know damned well that that dress can be repaired good as new, the only thing wrong with the necklace is a broken clasp and there's nothing at all wrong with Chuck's suit Auntie Di!"
"Yes, but you didn't think I was going to let that bastard get off Scot free after what he set up you and Chuck for, did you?"
Sarah shook her head with a smile.