Okay I finally got around to finishing a new chapter. I hope you enjoy it. After this chapter the story should be picking up the pace a little bit so just bear with me here. Also thanks everyone for all your comments I look forward to your feedback. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own Nothing!

Chapter 6

Colonel John Casey's eyes averted the computer screen when he heard the access panel being activated. He watched intently as she entered the room, freshly showered, clean clothes, her hair pulled back, she was all business.

"Are these mine?" she asked pointing to a big stack of files sitting on the table.

Casey nodded and watched as Sarah sat and went to work reading through them. Casey turned his attention back to his own work. It was nearly two hours that had passed when Sarah finally closed the last of the files. Noticing this, Casey got up from his chair and approached her.

"What do you think?" he asked as Sarah jotted a few notes down in her notebook.

"Some of them don't have as much experience as I would like." she replied looking up at him.

"Yeah, a little wet behind the ears if you ask me." he replied taking a seat next to her.

"This guy…Stevens…" she pulled his file from the pile. "He seems promising, he's got a lot of experience in the field. He shut down a drug cartel in Cambodia and pulled off a diamond heist in Belize. He's got rave reviews from his superiors."

"Yeah I read that. I also read that he likes to go off the radar, likes to make his own rules. Tends to have some kind of vendetta when it comes to authority figures." Casey piped in.

"Yeah." she sighed tossing the file down on the table, she looked at her watch. They would be arriving in less than 2 hours and she still had a lot of work to do.

"Any word from Beckman yet?" she asked getting up from the table.

"Nothing yet, she said she would check in with us tonight." he replied.

Sarah grabbed her files and headed to one of the computers in the back. "Let me know if you hear anything." she said as she moved to the back of the room.

"Sure." Casey went back to his computer and the two continued to work in silence.

The plane ride seemed endless. Chuck sat in silence for most of it. Occasionally he would share a few words with the three agents escorting him, nothing significant. They were there to do a job and he had no desire to make small talk with them especially when his mind kept drifting back to one person. He missed her already and he wondered if she was missing him.

Memories of her plagued his mind and the pain seeped into his chest. His breath caught in his throat and he thought he was going to suffocate.

"You okay Carmichael?" one of the agents asked, a look of concern on his face.

The mention of his name and the break of the silence seemed to jolt him back to reality. Chuck jumped almost startled. "What?" He asked coming out of his trance.

"You okay?" the agent repeated.

"Huh?…Oh…yeah…yeah I'm fine." He replied. Chuck took a deep calming breath and settled back into his seat. "I'm fine." he repeated almost as if he was trying to convince himself.

The plane landed and Chuck was escorted to a car that was waiting for him along with the three agents. They drove for about half an hour before they came to an old abandoned gas station that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"Here we are." the driver announced shutting off the engine. The agents began to exit the car. Chuck stared out the window very confused.

Umm…guys…are you sure we got the right place?" Chuck asked unbuckling his seat belt. One of the agents met him at his door and opened it waiting for him to emerge.

"It's the right place alright. Let's go Carmichael, they're waiting for you."

Chuck was escorted inside the small abandoned building. He followed the agents to the back of the building. They approached an old storage closet, opening the door, chuck watched as one of the agents, removed a small panel piece on the wall, exposing a secret access panel. Chuck watched at the agent typed in a special code, then proceeded to place his hand on the screen while it scanned his fingerprints. After the man scanned his hand he then went on to punch another code into the panel and stood by while a retina scan was performed. Finally a group of floorboards slid open revealing a hidden entranceway. Two of the agents proceeded down a ladder, the third gestured for Chuck to go down. Chuck followed suit and the third agent followed him.

Chuck concluded that it was a good 20 feet he descended on the ladder before they hit the ground. The majority of the way down was pitch black. It wasn't until he was nearly at the bottom of the ladder that he began to see some light shining. Once securely on the ground. Chuck could make out another door and another access panel on the wall beside it. The same agent who typed in the codes on the previous access panel went to work typing in yet another series of codes on this one. Moments later the door was opening and the four agents were entering a large room that put castle to shame. Chuck and the other agents proceeded forward. Chuck admired all the high tech computers, fancy equipment that filled the room and monitors that lined the walls. He couldn't help but think it was like something out of a movie.

"Have a seat Carmichael." one of the agents said as he and the other two agents all took a seat around a large conference table that sat in the middle of the room. Chuck copied them and took a seat.

"Now what?" he asked as everyone sat in silence.

"We wait." replied one of the agents.

"She's on her way down now." said another agent as he hung up his phone and tucked it inside his jacket pocket.

"Who's on their way down?" Chuck asked.

"The General." He barely got out of his mouth when the door opened. General Beckman and two other agents entered the room. Everyone stood up to greet her, Chuck imitated his fellow agents' actions.

"Gentlemen, you may be excused." Beckman dismissed the three agents. They exited the room, leaving only Chuck, Beckman and the two agents she entered with.

Once the men left the room, she turned her attention back to Chuck.

"Have a seat Agent Carmichael."

Chuck sat back down in his chair.

"Chuck, the agent to my right is Agent Jack Hansen and the gentleman to my left is Agent Dan McKinley. Agent Hansen and Agent McKinley are going to play a significant role in your training. You are about to commence a rigorous training program, that few have actually completed."

Chuck swallowed hard. What the hell did he get himself in to?

"Not only will you undergo extreme physical training, but you will also learn to withstand torture, not just physical, but chemical, mental, you name it. We will be testing your new abilities, put you through all kinds of scenarios and situations. You will also partake in your typical classes that all spies are required to take. You will be spending several hours a day in the gym, followed by hours in the classrooms, not to mention sessions with our physician on site to monitor you. Do you have any questions Chuck?"

"No." he replied. "No questions General."

"Very well then. We've wasted enough time. Agent Hansen, Agent McKinley, please escort, Agent Carmichael to the holding room, search him and his bags, show him to his bunker and then take him down to gym, warm him up. I want to see him sparring within the next hour."

"Yes General." Replied agent Hansen.

"This way Carmichael." Agent McKinley said gesturing towards the door that General Beckman had entered through.

"Agent Carmichael?" The General spoke up before the agents led Chuck away.

"Huh?" he replied. Wondering what more the General could possibly throw at him.

"Good Luck."

A look of fear came over Chuck. He managed to take a deep breath and reluctantly followed Agent Hansen through the doorway. Agent McKinley followed behind.

The unexpected sound of Casey's cell phone ringing caused both him and Sarah to stir their attention away from their work. Casey grunted his 'why are you bothering me, while I'm trying to work grunt?' and proceeded to answer his phone while Sarah looked on.

"Casey." he spoke into his end of the phone. " uh huh…..okay…..Roger that." he said before hanging up. Casey then turned his attention to Sarah. "That was them, they are on route now, ETA is 10 minutes."

"Great." Sarah replied, the sarcasm apparent in her response.

She quickly began gathering her files from the table. She went about stacking them one on top of the other until she had one tall stack. In a hurry she grabbed the pile from the table. Unfortunately for Sarah, she was in such a hurry that she didn't have her hands around the entire stack and the bottom two files fell to the floor. Sarah sighed heavily. She placed the stack of files back on the table and knelt down to pick up the two that had spilled onto the floor. Just as Sarah reached for the last of the papers, something caught her eye under the table.

"What the….?" She said as she reached for the small object.

"What is it Walker?" Casey said as he approached her from behind.

"Dammitt!" She exclaimed taking the object in her hand and bringing it to her eyes so she could examine it more closely. Casey knelt down beside her to get a closer look himself. "Casey, we've been bugged." she said holding up the small device to show him.

Casey immediately pulled out his phone and frantically dialed numbers.

"Change of plans." He said into the phone. "We've been compromised, do not bring the new recruits in…..That's right….no we need you to stand down and await further instruction…..I'll be in touch." Casey hung up the phone and returned it to his back pocket.

"Casey, sweep the castle." Sarah pulled out her own phone and immediately went to work dialing the General.

Nearly half an hour later, Casey had finished sweeping the castle, finding only one other bug in the main corridor. Sarah still was trying desperately to get a hold of General Beckman. She finally was able to get someone on the line but wasn't having any luck being put through to the General.

"Of course I understand she is a very busy woman, but this is a matter of national security, I need to speak with her now!" Sarah projected into the phone, only to be answered with a click and a dial tone. "This is ridiculous!" She said tossing the phone down on the table.

"No luck with the General?" Casey asked, tossing the two deactivated bugs down on the table.

"No." she snapped back. "You would think she might have us on some kind of a priority list or something, with the intersect project and all.

"Well?….What now Walker?….Surely you have some kind of back up plan here?" Casey asked with his usual hint of sarcasm.

"Back up plan? The plan is we find out who planted these bugs and we take them out. God knows what they could have heard. For all we know they know all about the intersect and if that's the case, Chuck is in danger!"

Sarah was getting upset. The idea of Chuck being in danger unnerved her, but the idea of Chuck being in danger thousands of miles away where she couldn't protect him was sending her over the edge.

"Alright, well the bugs couldn't have been here very long, because I just swept the castle 2 days ago, the night Chuck took out the ring agents."

"See if you can lift any finger prints from the bugs. I'm going to keep trying Beckman.?" Sarah grabbed her phone and headed to the control room.

Beckman watched from the sidelines as Chuck's body hit the mat once again. The sweat dripped from his body and he looked as though he had just hit a brick wall.

"Come on Carmichael get up." said agent McKinley. He grabbed two sparing sticks off the nearby wall. Chuck managed to stand on his feet, he was bruised and badly beaten.

"You need to concentrate Carmichael. You're not going to last a minute out in the field. Here take this." McKinley tossed him a sparring stick, nearly knocking Chuck back down in the process. Beckman groaned and shook her head in disgust as she watched the pitiful sight before her.

Chuck managed to regain his balance and took a few deep breaths. Taking the sparring stick in his hand Chuck stood upright examining the weapon in his hand. Chuck's eyes rolled back in his head as a series of images flashed quickly through his mind. Just as Agent McKinley was about to advance on Chuck with his weapon in hand, Chuck went into combat mode. Using the tool he had been given he effortlessly blocked every one of McKinley's advances. Chuck maneuvered his weapon like a pro as he moved in on McKinley. Before he knew what had happened, McKinley found himself down on the mat, Chuck standing over him in attack mode.

"What the hell was that?" asked agent Hansen as he approached General Beckman.

General Beckman smiled. "That agent Hansen, is Agent Charles Carmichael."

"So I was able to pull two sets of prints on these bugs." Casey said as he joined Sarah in the control room.

"Please don't tell me it was Haz?" Sarah pleaded.

"Okay, I won't tell you then." Casey replied.

"Dammit! How could this happen Casey? You searched him. We were careful."

"I don't know how it got past us. Haz was only one set of the fingerprints. The other set belonged to Agent Jeff Conway. Who happens to be one of the agents that accompanied the good Dr. We need to inform Beckman, any luck getting a hold of the General?" Casey asked.

"No, not yet. ..Casey….I'm worried about Chuck…God knows what Haz could have done to him during his exam. We need to get to him before someone else does." Sarah pleaded.

"Easy there Walker, don't let your lady feelings for agent imbecile get in the way of you doing your job here. Get your head on straight and think this through. The first thing we need is to get in contact with Beckman. Keep trying her."

"Well done Chuck." General Beckman said as she approached him from behind, handing him a towel. Chuck had just finished his fifth sparring session with Agent McKinley. He accepted the towel and wiped the sweat from his forehead before taking gulp of water from his water bottle. "If you continue like this, you'll make it through training in no time." She added.

Chuck didn't say anything, he was to tired to speak.

"General?" Agent Hansen approached.

"What is it Hansen?" she asked ,rather annoyed that he seemed to be interrupting her.

"General, I almost forgot, I have a message for you…. An Agent Sarah Walker has been trying desperately to get a hold of you, has left several messages that you contact her immediately."

Chuck piped up at the mention of Sarah's name. Why all the urgent messages? Was she is some kind of trouble?

"Very well then, please show agent Carmichael where he can shower and get cleaned up. Get him something to eat and afterwards show him to the classroom. He will begin instruction in one hour. After his class, get him back in the gym for some weight training and cardio." General Beckman instructed Agent Hansen before turning to walk away.

"General?" Chuck piped in before she could get too far.

"Yes Agent Carmichael? She once again looked rather annoyed.

"General…Agent Walker…if she's in trouble…if…something's wrong….you'll let me know?" he pleaded with his swollen black an blue eyes.

"If there is a problem concerning the project, I'll let you know. I suggest you get cleaned up now and eat something, you'll need your energy." and with that the General made her exit.