A/N: What to thank everyone for their reviews. They really help and I appreciate all of them. I also want to give a special thanks to michaelfmx for his beta services on this chapter. I hope everyone enjoys this chapter. The exciting stuff will start next chapter. Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck.
Chuck had been searching through their lives almost the entire night. He could feel the pressure building. The mission details would arrive in the morning. What if it was something they didn't want to do? All the possibilities were running through his mind: assassination, robbery, blackmail, kidnapping, and these were just a few of the horrible possibilities. As he sat at the computer continuing to dive down the rabbit hole the world around him faded away. He was determined as ever to figure out who these people were and what they wanted with him and the team. Chuck then felt a slight touch on his shoulder which caused him to jump, and much higher then he would like to admit. "Holy crap Sarah you scared me."
"Chuck come to bed. It's late and we have a mission tomorrow. I know you want to figure this out but you need your rest as well," Sarah said as she began to rub Chuck's shoulders.
"I know Sarah, it just that I feel so helpless right now. What if the mission is something we can't do, or won't do? Then what? I don't know how to deal with Mr. Smith and his organization when we know nothing about them or their goals," Chuck said as he turned back to his computer.
"Chuck I know that you are scared. I am too. The problem is you can kill yourself tonight digging for information and tomorrow when the mission comes someone could actually kill you. You need some rest. We can figure out the mission tomorrow. If it is something we aren't comfortable with we will figure out a way to get the results Mr. Smith wants in a manner that we are ok with." Sarah grinned at chuck hoping to calm his nerves.
"Give me just a little bit longer. I'm looking at anyone that has come into contact with us over the last couple of years. There has to be something here," Chuck said as he turned back to his computer.
Sarah continued to rub Chuck's shoulders and then began to slowly move her hands through his hair. She continued her magic as she gently started to kiss Chuck's neck.
"I thought you said I needed some rest?" Chuck asked.
"Well if I can't get you to bed for rest maybe I can find another way to motivate you to get away from your computer," Sarah said in a sultry tone.
"You are so bad Mrs. Bartowski." Chuck slowly closed his laptop and turned to face his wife.
"I know Mr. Bartowski, but I do feel like it is part of my job description, to make sure my husband is well rested." Sarah took Chuck's hand and slowly guided him to their bedroom. She knew that they both needed this. They needed time together away from the mission and thoughts of Mr. Smith. They were stuck in a war and she knew things were going to get tough, but right now she just wanted to be with her husband. As Sarah turned to Chuck she saw him looking down at his phone. No doubt continuing to look for any connection he could possibly find. Sarah reached over and grabbed the phone from his hands. "I suggest you take your hands off that and put them to better use," Sarah joked.
"I see. Well let's see what better uses I can come up with." Chuck turned to his wife and took her in his arms. He gently guided her into the bedroom closing the door behind them. Right now, in this moment, they were just husband and wife. They weren't spies caught in the grasp of and evil madman, which was exactly what both of them needed.
Sarah woke to find that Chuck was nowhere in sight. She slowly rolled over and let out a Casey like grunt. Last night had been magical, and for just a moment they were normal. There was no spy world, no missions, and definitely no Mr. Smith. In that moment they had everything they wanted. Now, lying alone in bed, she was reminded how quickly they had been thrown back in.
"Will we ever be able to escape this?" she thought to herself? Every time we think we are out something comes along and pulls us back into the shadows. "The last time we almost lost it all. I can't let that happen," Sarah thought. Here, in this moment, she promised herself that she would do anything and everything to protect Chuck and the family that they both deserved. As Sarah began to get out of bed she heard the loud crashing of what sounded like kitchen pans. She leapt to her feet and grabbed her trusty Smith and Wesson. She ran through the bedroom door gun at the ready. When she turned the corner into the kitchen she found Chuck cleaning up. "What's going on out here?" Sarah asked as she lowered her weapon.
"I was hoping to surprise you with breakfast in bed, but you can see how well that is going." Chuck just smirked and finished picking up everything that he had dropped.
"That's sweet Chuck. How about I help you and we eat breakfast together," Sarah just laughed as she took the eggs from Chuck's hands.
The couple made their breakfast and just enjoyed each other's company. Neither one wanted to breach the subject of Mr. Smith. They both knew once they went down that road they weren't going to be able to turn back. Instead they enjoyed their food and enjoyed the normalcy of a happy married couple. As they cleaned up the breakfast mess they heard a slight knock at the door. Sarah quickly grabbed her gun. Chuck went to the couch and grabbed his tranq gun from underneath the seat.
Suddenly Sarah had a memory of running to the door with a gun to discover that it was just the paper being delivered. She remembered the conversation that followed, the one to quit spying. She fought back a tear thinking about this. Here they were going to the door guns blazing and no closer to the family they both wanted. Sarah quickly stopped herself and readied her weapon. She knew that dream could still become a reality, but they needed to survive all of this first.
Chuck looked over at Sarah and waited for her signal. She slowly nodded and Chuck began to open the door making sure to cover himself the entire time. As the door slowly swung open the couple quickly realized no one was there. The only thing present was an envelope tapped to the door. This was obviously their mission from Mr. Smith. Chuck looked around the courtyard hoping to catch a glimpse of the delivery man, but there was no one in sight. He quickly removed the envelope from the door and closed it behind him. On the envelope were the words "Team Bartowski". Chuck looked at the envelope and then looked at Sarah. They both knew what this meant. The war between them and Mr. Smith had begun and there was no turning back now. They were going to have to see this to the end.
"I think we should take this to Castle and wait for Casey to open it," Chuck suggested.
"I agree. Let's get dressed and head to castle. We can call Casey on the way," Sarah said as she turned to head to the bedroom.
Chuck and Sarah arrived at Castle. They were not at all surprised to find that Casey was already there. "Looks like Casey was the early bird this morning," Chuck joked.
"I bet he slept here. Would you want to sleep in an apartment with your daughter and her boyfriend?" Sarah joked.
They both laughed and headed into Castle. As they went down the stairs they could see that everything was up and running. When they reached the bottom of the stairs they saw Casey working away at one of the computers. Then they were both shocked when they heard a set of voices coming from the hall. Out walked Morgan and Verbanski. They were in the middle of a heated discussion that seemed to be focused on Morgan's role in the mission.
"Hey buddy about time you got here," Morgan said as he caught Chuck and Sarah walking down the stairs.
"What are you doing here Morgan?" Chuck was puzzled as to why Morgan was here. Verbanski he understood, but he thought they were trying to keep the family out of this one.
"Casey came over last night and filled me in about everything. Then he said I played a pivotal role in the success of team Bartowski so I should be a part of this mission," Morgan said as a large smile appeared across his face.
You could hear Casey's grunt from a mile away. "Slow down there moron. I told you and Alex what was going on to help keep you safe. Then you decided that we needed you, and I just didn't feel like arguing. I figured we could always use someone to stay behind in Castle and clean or something," Casey joked.
"Ha ha real funny big guy. You know you guys need me and that is why I am here to help. So what do you have there?" Morgan asked.
"This is the envelope that Mr. Smith delivered with our mission info," Chuck stated. Chuck placed the envelope on the conference table. He looked around and saw everyone there. It was still hard to believe that they were all back together in this world again. He wanted to send Morgan away to keep him safe, but he knew they needed as many hands as they could get. He figured he could always tell him to stay in the van, since that had worked so well in the past for the team.
"I say we open it up and get it over with. The suspense is killing me," Morgan joked as he reached for the envelope.
"Hold on there moron. We are going to screen this thing first. Who knows what's in there and I'm not going to explain to my daughter that her boyfriend got his hands blown off because he opened an envelope," Casey grunted as he grabbed the envelope. Casey scanned the envelope for anything and everything and it came back clean. He took the envelope and handed it to Chuck. "Figured you should open it since Mr. Smith seems to have a little bit of a crush on you," Casey said as he handed Chuck the envelope.
"Good one Casey. Let's get down to business," Chuck replied as he slowly opened the envelope.
Inside the envelope was a cell phone, a map, a picture, and a file. As Chuck looked at the image he could feel a flash coming on. Instantly he was hit with a wealth of information about the man in the image. "Wow, I don't think I will ever get used to that," Chuck said as he came out of his flash.
"Well what did you get?" Sarah looked at Chuck and waited to hear what he had to say.
"Yes, well his name is Viktor Orlov. He is an arms dealer by trade, but occasionally he dabbles in human trafficking, drugs, you know all the good wholesome stuff. He is former KGB and was highly decorated until a mission went sideways and he was forced to run. He lives here in L.A. and owns multiple night clubs as fronts for his criminal organization." Chuck gasped as he finally took a breath after the flash and following rant.
"Ok, now that we know the who, time to move on to the what," Casey said as he reached over and grabbed the file folder from the table.
"Looks like Mr. Smith here wants us to intercept one of Viktor's shipments, and deliver it to a warehouse," Casey continued to read the file.
"Well that's not so bad. At least we don't have to kill anyone." Chuck let a nervous smirk creep across his face.
"Ya but we have no idea what is in this shipment or who we are handing it over too," Sarah replied.
"Before we get way ahead of ourselves, let's look over all the information. We can see if braniac over here flashes on anything else, and come up with a game plan," Verbanski commented.
Everyone looked around the room at each other and nodded. They knew that they needed to process every piece of this information. They needed to come up with a plan to accomplish Mr. Smith's goals and then they could work on adding some of their own goals to the mix. The team had been going over all the information and doing research of their own when the cell phone from the package started to ring. Chuck let out a slight chuckle when the ringtone was the Imperial Death march from Star Wars. "Well I guess we know Mr. Smith has a sense of humor," Chuck smirked as he picked up the phone.
"Hello," Chuck answered the phone and waited for a response.
"Hello Chuck. Glad to see you got my delivery. As you can tell from the information I have given you this isn't much different from when you were running missions for that General of yours. As you have probably seen in the file the shipment is scheduled for a week from today. All you have to do is grab the shipment and deliver it to the drop off point. I would prefer for this to happen as inconspicuously as possible. Don't want fire fights in the news and all, but you are the expert so do what you must. Chuck, I just called to see if you like this new song I heard." Just then Mr. Smith's voice was replaced by the unmistakable sound of Jeffster. "You see Chuck, it's a song from this new band in Germany. I think you know them. Just wanted to remind you what you were playing for. Talk to you later Chuck." And then he was gone. Chuck stood there in horror as the group around him looked on. Mr. Smith was just toying with them. Chuck knew the missions were never going to stop and that whatever this group's final plan was would ultimately end badly for everyone he cared about.
Team Bartowski spent the next few days doing recon and formulating a plan. Mr. Smith had given them a pretty detailed description of everything in the operation, but they wanted to verify it for themselves. For all they knew this entire mission was a trap for them. All the Intel checked out and the plan was ready. The shipment was coming in via cargo ship and had to sit in customs at the dock. Viktor had someone on the take in customs to ensure that his shipment was not bothered. Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Verbanski would infiltrate the dock and locate the shipment. There they would swap tags with a bogus shipment they had set up. Then in the morning, they would be able to drive right in and pick up the shipment. Not leaving anything to chance, Chuck hacked the dock's database and created credentials for Sarah and himself so they could stay with the shipment. Morgan would be monitoring the entire mission from the van, watching for any surprises. It really was a simple mission. They knew all four of them going in was overkill, but with Mr. Smith in play they weren't going to leave anything to chance.
The day of the mission was quickly approaching and the team was leaving nothing to chance. They had gone over every detail of the plan a million times. They agreed to take a little break and reconvene back at Castle for one last walk through. Morgan went home to spend some time with Alex. Casey and Verbanski decided the gun range was calling their name. Chuck and Sarah decided on a nice lazy afternoon together at Echo Park.
After their well-deserved break they all met back at Castle to go over the plan. Chuck began going over the plan in great detail. They would infiltrate the dock immediately following the delivery of the package. Casey and Verbanski would head to the security office and loop the feeds, hiding the team's movements. Chuck and Sarah would head for the shipment and place the new tags on the crates. They would then place multiple trackers on the crates in hopes of discovering where Mr. Smith was taking the merchandise. Chuck and Sarah would then place the crates for the original shipment on whatever they could find in case Viktor showed up for his items ahead of time. Then they would wait for the pickup window to arrive and Casey would show up with a truck and load the shipment. As the team went over the mission it just seemed too easy. They knew there was more to it, but they just couldn't figure out what it was yet. Just as the meeting was coming to a close the phone from Mr. Smith began to ring. This time Chuck was ready he had tracking software set up and was hoping to catch a location for the call.
"Hello Mr. Smith. How are you today?" Chucked asked with a strained look on his face.
"Chuck it is so good to hear your voice. I just wanted to check in and see how the planning was going," Mr. Smith asked
"It's going well, we're ready to go. What exactly are we stealing for you?" Chuck was stalling. He knew his software needed time to be able to track Mr. Smith's phone.
"Oh Chuck that's not your concern. You just grab the shipment and delivery it to the drop off point. My men will take it from there. Chuck, don't try any funny business. I would hate to have to get your friends' blood on my new suit. Bye now." Mr. Smith chuckled just as the phone call disconnected.
Chuck quickly went to his computer to check the tracking software. He was unable to get a location but was able to hack Mr. Smith's camera phone with a bug that was running with his software. He brought up the image just in time to see Mr. Smith's face. Mr. Smith put his finger in front of his face as he moved it side to side. "Bad boy Chuck, trying to hack my phone. You are better than I thought. You almost got me," Mr. Smith said. Just then the phone dropped to the ground and the next image was of Mr. Smith's foot smashing the phone.
Chuck's blood began to boil. This man always seemed to be one step ahead of him. Chuck threw his chair across the room. "Damn it. Again he's one step ahead of me. How is he always one step ahead?" Chuck's anger was beginning to take over when he felt the soft touch of Sarah's hand on his shoulders.
"Chuck it's ok. We'll figure this out," Sarah tried to calm Chuck down.
"Sarah, I just don't know. This is different. He knows everything about us. He has been studying us for years and he knows our habits, how we think, and God knows what else. I just don't know if we can come out of this one unharmed." Chuck looked around the room at the team. He could tell everyone was worried. Hell even Casey had the look. That look of what and who the hell are we up against.
"The mission is tomorrow. We'd better all get some rest. I can't imagine this mission is only what he has shown us. There is going to be more and we need to be prepared for it," Casey said, breaking the silence.
"Ok see everybody here tomorrow, and be prepared for anything," Sarah replied.
Morgan, Gertrude, Casey, Sarah, and Chuck all looked at each other for a moment before ascending the stairs to leave. This wasn't the usual demeanor of the team. They were feeling the pressure and the odds stacking up against them. This group was like nothing they faced before and they knew they we in for a war.
Meanwhile Mr. Smith looked down at what was left of his phone. He knew how close Chuck had come to gaining some information on him. He couldn't afford to make a mistake now. They were so close to achieving their goals. A mistake like that would cost him his life, and he really wasn't ready to part with it. He walked over to his desk and powered up his computer. His computer came on to a black screen with just a blinking cursor. The words "Status report" appeared on the screen.
Everything is going according to plan. Chuck and his team are ready to proceed with their mission.
What about your half of the mission?
My team is in place and ready to accept the shipment.
Very good. Will your team be able to accomplish the rest of their objectives tomorrow?
Yes, I have no doubt my team will succeed.
I hope you are right. I would hate to have to terminate our relationship so soon.
With that the computer screen went dark. Mr. Smith just starred at it for what seemed like an eternity. He knew his team was prepared, but the intersect and his team had proven to be formidable foes in the past. He just hoped that the outcome would come out in his favor tomorrow. He reached into his top drawer and pulled out a bottle of scotch and a glass. "We'd better come out on top tomorrow", he thought. He then took a hefty drink and sat in silence. Tomorrow couldn't be over soon enough.