A/N Okay, we've had the setup, now for the payoffs. This chapter just threw itself at me, after the last one went out of its way to be difficult.
"The best weapons are the ones they can't see."
"Game over, Captain America."
"Try not to get killed until dessert."
"Have you ever heard of a Red Test?"
Chuck arrived at the restaurant, a little later than he expected. One of the darts had gone missing, and Big Mike, disliking shrinkage in any form, had held everybody back until the item had been found.
Chuck gave his name to the hostess, scanning the crowd to see if Jones was already here. With his height advantage he saw here easily, dressed in a professional outfit, with an expression on her face that made him want to rethink the whole 'date' concept. The hostess chose that moment to pick up some menus and lead him to the table.
Jones put a smile on her face. Only the hostess was fooled. "Where have you been?" she snapped, the expression on her face totally at odds with the tone of her voice. "I have things to do tonight, and so do you."
"I do?" asked Chuck. "No one mentioned anything to me."
"Probably because you were too busy looking for some kids' toys." She pushed a blue envelope across the table. "Shaw spotted me on the way out and gave me this to give to you."
Chuck took the envelope and raised it up, so that when he opened it she wouldn't be able to see his eyes. Sure enough, the photo of the man triggered a flash. Hunter Perry was a very bad man engaged in some very shady dealings with the Ring. Chuck wondered if Shaw knew this, and how. Shaw wasn't supposed to be running any Ring-related operations, but it looked like he'd found a way to manipulate Chuck into running one for him.
Chuck lowered the envelope, wondering what expression he'd see on Jones' face. "Am I supposed to know this guy?" he asked.
She looked…blank. Uninterested. "He's a traitor and a killer, that's all I know or want to know about him. Oh, and he'll be here in about five minutes."
"Five minutes?" asked Chuck. "What am I supposed to able to get done in five minutes? I'm not prepared to handle this."
"Shaw knows that," said Jones. She pointed at the envelope. "Just like that guy knows who you work for. That's why Shaw also told me to give you this." She pushed a napkin across the table.
Chuck lifted the top and saw a handgun. "What?" he said, covering the gun. "Here? Now? I can't just kill him."
"Oh, that's too bad," said Jones. "I'll miss you, Carmichael." She stood up. "You came here to dinner, without weapons, without even a plan. The only thing you can do now is pop him, that's what I'd do." She flashed Chuck a bright smile. "Have a good night."
Chuck didn't watch her go, drumming his fingers on the napkin. Typical Shaw, trying to force the issue like this, trying to get a lethal reaction from him, or from the Intersect. Chuck had no intention of giving him what he wanted, even if Sarah had been the one to ask him, but of course she never would.
Just a minute left…
Sarah handed 'Ivan Drago' his towels, and watched him and his goons head for the locker rooms. She waited until he and his men swaggered into the sauna before she texted the information to Casey, as she left the building. Casey would wait a few minutes anyway before trying to go in, so no loss there. Even if Zevlovski left the sauna right after she left, he'd walk into Casey coming out of the locker room.
Not the best plan, but she wasn't about to let Chuck dangle at some dinner arranged by Shaw. He'd be all 'Agent Jones, you look great', and she'd throw him to the wolves before the hors d'oeuvres arrived.
John Casey pulled his Crown Victoria into the parking lot of the Cobalt Hotel and Spa at speed, even goosing it a little as he tried to avoid a Porsche on its way out. Not the smoothest handoff he'd ever had, but it would do, provided no one scratched his car.
He headed straight for the sauna, shelling out the ridiculous fee without a thought, keeping his eye on the door. In the locker room he stuffed his clothes into a bag and put it on top, out of casual view, just in case he needed a quick exit.
It wasn't his name, but Chuck had become sensitized over the years. "I'm looking for Mr. Carmichael."
Just a few seconds left.
The sauna was warm and foggy, as expected. Zevlovski sat on the far wall, facing the door with his goons on either side, conversing quietly in Russian. Fortunately Casey knew the language. As a compassionate man, he always wanted to give his enemies the chance to surrender as easily as possible.
There was no one else in the room, so whatever deal they had going down hadn't gone down yet.
Casey heard someone enter but didn't open his eyes. Whoever it was had shoes on, probably a spa employee. "Mr. Drago?"
Casey opened his eyes a crack, saw Zevlovski receive a note, read it, and crumple it up. He made no sign that he understood anything Anatoli said to his men as they all stood to go to a meeting somewhere in the hotel. As they left the room, Casey caught the number 'seven' but the door closed on the rest. He went and checked the note, but the ink had all smeared. Who writes with water-soluble ink in a sauna?
He left the room, ran to the locker room and grabbed his bag. Just then the door opened and the two goons walked in. "Boss' partner thinks we are being followed," said one in accented English. "So boss thinks we are being followed. And here you are following us."
Casey dropped his bag.
At the train station…
Of course the door that the bad guy hid behind was the one that opened outward. Chuck wasn't sure he'd ever seen a bathroom stall door that opened out but there had to be a first time for everything.
He lost his gun in the learning, and his new pants in the several quick slashes that followed. In a way he was glad the guy had a knife, since a gun going off in here would make a lot of noise and deafen them both.
Perry came in too close, secure in his possession of the only obvious weapon, and Chuck grabbed his arm with one hand and threw the handful of pepper he'd taken from the table into Perry's eyes. In seconds Perry was blinded and down, while Chuck had the knife in his hand and knew exactly how to use it.
In the locker room…
Casey pivoted on his bare heel, something he wouldn't have been able to do if he'd been wearing shoes. He swung his bag with one hand as his outstretched leg counterbalanced, something he wouldn't have been able to do if he'd been wearing his regular clothes. First his heel, and then the gun in the bag whacked the second guy in the head and took him down.
Casey took his towel, wrapped around the first goon's head, and wrapped it back around his hips. "What's the matter, you've never seen a naked spy before?"
Neither unconscious man answered him.
Casey changed in the elevator to the seventh floor, emerging as a hotel maid passed by the elevator. He hung back, letting her turn the corner alone, in case Zevlovski, currently goon-less, decided to watch his own back. He peeked around the corner, to see Zevlovski opening the door to one room and the maid opening the door to the room next to that. A quick check of the floor map showed the nearest stairwell around the corner, where he wouldn't be able to see anyone coming or going. He had to get into a nearby room, otherwise he'd have to get onto a balcony or something, and that was no business for a self-respecting spy. Casey'd always preferred the 'secret' part of 'secret agent'.
Casey walked slowly down the hall, and slipped a piece of tape on the doorframe so the lock wouldn't engage. He checked himself in the mirror on the wall until the maid came out of the room, deposited used towels, grabbed new towels, and went to the room across the hall. As she went inside Casey slipped into the room she'd just left, peeling off the tape. Sarah's urgency had left him no time to grab anything out of his trunk, so he had no cams to plant, even if he'd had time enough to plant them. The best he could do was crack the door and hope to see the mole's face, in the mirror across the hall.
Something in the room next door sounded very much like a muffled gunshot, and something fell heavily to the floor. Casey suspected immediately that he'd just heard an assassination, but of whom? Seconds passed, and he began to wonder what was going on. Surely the first priority would be to get away from the scene as fast as possible, and the hall was clear.
The stairs! Casey dug his dental mirror out of his pocket just in time, as the door next to him cracked open, feet moving rapidly. He saw the back of someone's head as they walked away, but he needed to see the killer's face. Just then the door across the hall opened, the maid on her rounds, but the killer in the hall turned to look back.
Casey frowned. Jones?
Sarah got to Traxx just in time to see a man push some woman in Chuck's way and make a break for it. Chuck wouldn't let her fall, and lost a second in his pursuit. Sarah lost no time, but she was farther away and in bad shoes for sprinting.
She saw Chuck jump a gate and followed him up a ramp into the train yard itself. She could hear them running somewhere, the loose stones gave that much away, but her main advantage in this scenario was secrecy. Men running in panic-mode have natural patterns they tend to fall into, so she could work with that. She stepped sideways, to the left, passing between two cars to a new path. The sounds were louder now and she sped up, knowing that their sounds would cover hers.
A gunshot! The train next to her echoed with the impact…up above her head? The running started again. Why would Chuck fire up? She moved forward, looking for the next gap between trains, happy but exasperated. A hot pursuit was no time for warning shots.
She moved into the gap between trains, and the man fell right in front of her. Dammit! He must have broken right instead of left. She kept still in the darkness, as Chuck advanced in good form. He stopped a good distance away, far enough that the man couldn't take his gun but well within the effective range for that weapon. "I gave you a chance."
Sarah wouldn't have. She would have just shot the guy in mid-babble, knowing the guy was just making a play for time. She brought up her weapon, knowing the guy's scrabbling in the stones was just a ploy of some kind. She watched his hands and feet.
There! An ankle holster, brought close to seemingly-frantic fingers. The man raised his gun and dropped it again, with a cry of pain as a huge knife impaled his arm. Sarah glanced over at Chuck, one hand still flung out, and smiled. An impressive toss, in the dark and a knife that size.
In desperation, Perry looked around for any escape, and saw her standing in the shadows, staring at Carmichael. He pounced.
Chuck saw Perry move but the dark had already thrown his aim off with the knife, and he hesitated to shoot, just long enough for Perry to drag something in between them. Someone.
"Drop it or she dies," shouted Perry, the knife covered with his own blood at Sarah's throat. His other hand held her wrist, preventing her from aiming her gun in spite of the wound in his arm.
Chuck felt it coming this time, the Intersect responding to sensory input of a far different kind than it had been designed to respond to. He was aware of every move his body made as the Intersect positioned it for maximum control, to deal with the threat Perry presented in the most efficient way. He fought it all the way.
Sarah saw Chuck flash, but the twitchiness was new, and she knew he was fighting whatever the Intersect was making him do. The guy must have seen it too, even if he couldn't have known what it was. He started pulling at her arm, fighting for possession of her weapon. "Gimme it, gimme it, GIMME IT!"
Sarah saw Chuck lose the battle, and tilted her head slightly to one side. The sound of the gun firing was drowned out by the sound of the world's largest insect buzzing by her ear. The guy let go of her, and she pushed the knife hand to one side as the body fell.
Chuck wasn't moving, gun still pointed at a target no longer there. She put her gun away, just in case. She pulled out her phone, selected an app, and spoke one word into it.
She walked over to her partner, his eyes tracking her movement. "Are you there, Chuck?"
"I'm here, Sarah."
"What's wrong, Chuck?"
"Error condition detected," he said. "Initiate download."
Sarah stepped past his gun and reached behind his head, fingers in his hair as she pressed her lips to his. The Intersect didn't know what to do with a kiss but Chuck did, and she could feel the stiffness of his position ease as he responded. Behind his head, she raised her other hand, with the phone. Held the phone to his ear. Pressed play.
"Reboot."
A/N2 So it's a little different. I've done a couple of scenes where the Intersect makes a person do something they don't want to. I'm surprised they didn't try to play that card here. Probably would have cut down on the angst. Can't have that. I hope you'll drop me a line and tell me what you think of this rewrite so far.