ChuckParis5
Chapter 6 Dead Ends and Eve Offers Adam the Apple
Casey walked back into Shaw's apartment followed by an equally irritated Sarah Walker. Another sweep, another stab of hope, another mocking discovery. The second one today. She was fast losing the hope that had bloomed when Casey had made his case for finding Chuck alive.
Daniel Shaw was on the phone with one of his sleeper cell agents and from his side of the conversation, his personal operation was not going well either. Hannah Harris, aka Hannah Nguyen, had no connections whatsoever to the Ring, any of its identified affiliates or fronts. She was what she appeared to be on the plane, a young woman returning to Paris. How…frustrating.
He spoke rapidly. "A dead end then. Go back through her past. There has to be something…check her parents, her grandparents. No one is this clean. Keep me advised."
"So, agents, what do you have to report?" He was fast becoming disenchanted with Casey and Walker. Casey was a troglodyte and Walker was a compromised agent who should have been replaced when he first took over. His own weakness. Well, he would bear the scars of his mistake for the rest of his life and had been lucky to escape serious injury during her knife-wielding 'melt down' in the van.
"We found both transponders planted in…businesses. We found a note at each location. 'Why?' It seems they're mocking us. I don't know why. I just feel there's more to this than meets the eye, Shaw. What have you turned up on Hannah Harris?"
"Businesses? What kinds of businesses? Any possibility of a linkage back to the Ring?"
"The first was a…a…" Casey was looking for the right word to describe Madame Rosa's House of Pleasure and Pain.
"The words Colonel Casey is looking for are 'sex shop'. A fetish and bondage boutique catering to that clientele…as well as a 'dungeon operation' complete with girls, both dominatrix and submissives. I don't believe the Colonel had ever imagined such places existed." She knew they existed. She'd worked one while tracking a mark early in her career.
"And the other?"
"A cat house. A high class whore house."
"Give me the addresses and I'll have a background check initiated. Maybe they're linked to the Ring although that bunch is far too prudish to use them for anything other than extortion, money laundering and revenue."
Both Casey and Sarah felt that Shaw was far too knowledgeable about the Ring operations for their tastes. They also both felt the need for a shower after Madame Rosa's. Chuck would never have visited such places. He probably didn't even know they existed. He was not a pervert like Shaw was fast revealing himself to be. She couldn't believe she'd even considered a liaison with Shaw. Disgusting. Her conscience took her to task. It did that a lot lately. 'Liaison? Oh, come on, Sarah. Call it what is would have been…masturbation with an Entwife.'
She and Casey went to the corner bistro for coffee and conversation.
"Walker, I think the Ring is just playing with us. I don't think we're going to find him, dead or alive. This is just their way of keeping us running from place to place and not concentrating on the big picture."
"Well, I think it's safe to say Chuck wouldn't have gone near one of those places. The transponders are being planted and until we catch whoever's doing it, we're clueless. If all the transponders were planted by the same guy, oh, hell, I'm grasping at straws here."
Casey's cell phone chirped and he saw it was Shaw calling.
"What now, Shaw?" He was damned if he'd be civil to the stiff-necked ass.
"Another transponder hit. This one is on the move, heading out of the city towards the northwest. It's 10km from the chase vehicle and moving very fast. Catch up to the sleepers and join the pursuit. It can cross the border into Belgium in less than 2 hours at current rate of speed."
"Walker, let's go. Another transponder activated and it's on the move."
He filled her in on the rest of Shaw's message. If they were taking him out of the country, it meant that he was probably still alive and being moved to an interrogation center. Not good.
"Casey, forget the car. It's too slow. We need a chopper. Let's head for the airport."
Thirty minutes later they were in a hired helicopter heading towards the GPS coordinates the chase car was updating every 15 minutes. At their current speed, they'd intercept before the next update.
Henri turned off the highway and onto a secondary road. The tour bus would cross the border in less than 30 minutes. He drove back onto the highway and drove at a leisurely speed back to the city and his last transponder plant – the train to Marseille.
Chuck was sitting in the warm sun dozing when Hannah came and sat beside him and gently whispered his name in his ear. "Chuck, sweetie, Henri is here with some photographs for you to look at. Wake up, sleeping beauty."
"Hannah, if I'm 'sleeping beauty', you have to be traditional."
She smiled and complied with tradition. She woke her 'sleeping beauty' with a kiss, running her tongue against his lips and then slipping it into his mouth. Their tongues dueled briefly and she broke the kiss.
"Wow. I have a new respect for tradition. Let me help you up and into the carriage house. After you're done with Henri, I'd like to explore more traditions, honey. Some in-depth exploration?"
"Oh, Hannah, you're killing me, babe. The spirit is oh, so willing, but the ribs are still a bit tender."
"I am a creative individual, honey, and I am known for my 'work arounds' and problem solving skills. Now, let me worry about the ribs, you go do your spy thing with Henri."
She took his place in the sun and watched him walk carefully back into the carriage house. She'd have to be very creative, indeed, to avoid any discomfort for him. Where there was a will, there was a way.
"Agent Bartowski, I have brought photographs of the team following your wild goose chases and some of individuals who've shown an unhealthy interest in Ms. Nguyen's apartment. Do you recognize any of these people?"
"Chuck, Henri, my friends call me Chuck. I don't think I'm entitled to be referred to as 'Agent' any longer."
"OK, Chuck. Do you recognize any of these people?" He spread a dozen photographs over the tabletop.
"This is my primary handler, Casey. This is our team leader, Daniel Shaw. This is my other handler who's involved with Shaw romantically. A week ago I trusted them with my life. Now, I think my life is worthless and they've been tasked with the sanction."
"Sanction? What is 'sanction'?" He'd never heard the term before.
"A sanction is an assassination order. A hit. The shooting at the Café was a sanction with me as the target. I was warned that breaking cover and going to Paris for a week might result in a sanction but I didn't believe it. Incredible. These two", pointing to Casey and Walker, "were my friends. We'd been together 3 years. I guess I'm not a good judge of character, Henri."
"And these other four?" He pointed out the sleeper cell members.
"Never saw any of them before. They're strangers to me. I guess all of these people are strangers, really. Casey, Walker, not even their real names, of course. I never was told their real names. She and I posed as cover boyfriend and girlfriend for 2 ½ years. Things happened, things changed and she broke it off. She's with Shaw now I believe."
"And you are with Ms. Hannah, no?"
"No. We really just met on the plane. I like her. What's not to like. But it's too soon and now…I must leave her. She would become 'collateral damage' and I will not permit that. Can I speak with the Director sometime today? I have to leave and I want to explain why. She's his daughter and history will repeat itself."
"I will speak to him. He is not unsympathetic to your situation, Chuck. Bear in mind, however, he is the top Ring Executive and he has responsibilities for many others."
"I understand. I'm not leaving tonight. Or even tomorrow. Still too sore to walk far and driving would be out of the question."
When Chuck didn't return after half an hour, Hannah went in search of her other half. When she found him, he was staring at photographs and seemed almost in tears.
"What's wrong, baby? Talk to me, Chuck. Don't shut me out. Maybe I can help."
"Help? No one can help me. These two people were my best friends for almost 3 years and the other night, in Paris, one of them, probably the man, shot me in a botched assassination attempt. Why, Hannah? Why would they turn on me?"
"Come with me. You need a bath and then you need comfort. I'll help you with both, Chuck. I have a story to tell you and then we'll figure out what we're going to do together. You're not alone, Chuck. I'm with you and together we'll see this thing through to the end. Trust me. I'm never wrong about such things."
He laughed bitterly. "You sure have a lot of experience with spies and assassinations, Hannah."
"No experience at all. But I've spent my life solving riddles and problems. I graduated top in my class from Carnegie-Mellon, Chuck. I'm smart. Trust me, Chuck. I won't let you down." She helped him up the stairs into the bathroom.
"Strip, Chuck. I've seen it all before. I have a younger brother. You're just bigger than he is…oh, my, a lot bigger." She giggled and he blushed and sat gingerly down in the huge European-style garden tub to hide his…bigness. Even that small movement was agony. The doctor had told the nurse the ribs were 'badly broken' and would take longer to knit due to the splintering caused by the bullet forcing the flask against his chest.
She disrobed efficiently and then adjusted the tub water temperature and eased into the hot water and began washing him. She was appalled at the size of the bruise that extended several inches around the dressing.
"Hannah! I can handle this myself. I think…"
"You think too much, Chuck, and live too little." She gently removed his dressing and washed around the incision, tinting the water pink as dried and fresh blood fell into the tub from his skin.
The water began to cool so she drained the tub and helped him stand and turned on the shower to rinse them both. She was so aroused that she was sure he could smell her lust. She could feel his throbbing against her stomach as she held him up and rinsed him off. The difference in their heights would make things interesting for them in the years to come, of that she was certain.
"Chuck, I want you. I'll be very careful but I want you and I will have you, and then I will tell you the story I promised you. Come, be my lover, Chuck. I will never betray you. Never."
A long while later she whispered, "Chuck, no one ever made me feel so loved. Thank you. Sleep now. Story hour can wait. Maybe I can show you again how much I care for you when you recover your wits?" She'd treated him like he might break at any touch but soon the endorphins kicked in and he was able to fully appreciate her efforts.
Chuck laughed and pulled her closer with his good arm. He didn't have a lot of experience to compare things to but he knew that the last hour or so was one of the best times of his life. How could he let her go? How could he protect her? Questions needing answers. Another mission complication he didn't want or need but had to deal with.
"You're bleeding again. Let me get the gauze and tape." She slid out of bed and went into the bathroom and returned with gauze, alcohol wipes and surgical tape.
"I've never done this before, Chuck."
"Well, just wipe the…"
"No, I mean drag a man to my bed. You are only the second man I've slept with and the last was when I was 22 in my senior year so it's been a long while between men. Oh, that didn't come out right. You're special, Chuck. I knew it on the plane. Our meeting was part of our destiny. It was foretold and I believe in it."
"Destiny? Who foretold what?"
"It is an augury, and it was foretold by an old Chinese amah who was my mother's companion and servant since she was a little girl. She'd dead now but she told me that you would be tall and dark-eyed and would come out of the western sky and you would save me and be my soul mate and partner and would complete me. Please don't laugh, Chuck. My mother's people take this stuff very seriously. And I do, too, for all my education."
"And you think I'm this guy out of the west who completes you?"
"When I saw you on the plane, I couldn't breathe. Everything around you turned blurry but you. You stood out and I felt like I was…coming home from a long journey. It's our Fate to be together. You feel the tug, too. I can tell. On the plane, we found ourselves telling the truth to one another and neither of us wanted to do that. We had to."
"Yeah, on the plane, I felt like I knew you and when you spoke about Paris so intimately I knew then that I wanted to see it, experience it, with you and no one else. I thought I'd hit my head in the baggage hold or that the poison had some side effect but I see now…Fate."
"Don't mock me, Chuck, please? I'm serious."
"I'm not mocking you. That's how I felt, too. Like I knew you; that we'd shared something I couldn't remember. How crazy is that?"
"We're here, together. Fate." 'Le Click' – love at first sight.
She finished changing the dressing and then put the supplies away. When she got back, Chuck was asleep, leaning back against the pillows. She got a sudden urge and went downstairs and located a blank canvas and her charcoal pencils. She would capture this moment for them both as a remembrance of their first time as lovers. She covered his genitals with the sheet, giggling because she wanted to immortalize all of him but decorum prevailed.
Three hours later the light began to go and he was waking up. She put the canvas in her room, behind the door, and cleaned up her charcoal pencils. She had the drawing. Soon she would paint him. Tonight, she would possess him again and experiment with the things she'd heard her sorority sisters talk about but never dared think to do. She was becoming a wanton woman at the ripe old age of 25.
Sarah Walker tossed and turned but couldn't find a comfortable position to try and sleep. They'd been up almost 48 hours straight and the latest 'hit' had been on a train bound for Marseille. The damned notes. Always the same. Just the one damning word. 'WHY?'
"Why?" And she had no answer. If she had been really honest with herself instead of maintaining her façade as an agent, she didn't know the question, either. None of them did.