ChuckParis19
Chapter 19: An Axe to Grind
He woke up earlier than usual and felt a moment's disorientation. Why wasn't he in his own bed? He cracked open one eye and saw his office lit only by the glow of his computer monitor. It all came rushing back. Hannah had picked a fight and he'd gone to the office to work on a project and just crashed on the couch.
'She's been on edge since Thailand. Maybe killing that woman was cleansing to her soul but maybe it was bothering her on another level? Maybe the whole camp thing brought back memories and she's having trouble coping?'
He had a sudden insight and an idea. He grabbed his cell and started to call his shrink, the NSA agent, but remembered the time. Best to let her sleep. A pissy Alex was a negative agent and an uncooperative one to boot.
He walked out into the garden and cut across the verandah to slip into the kitchen. There were quite a few raised eyebrows at his appearance and entrance but he found what he wanted – her father's undelivered breakfast.
He told the cook he'd take care of it and scooted out the door before she could offer any objections. He needed some 'alone time' with Jacques. Breakfast would be his key.
Carriage House
"OK, Chuck. You don't normally bring me breakfast. What's on your mind?"
"Business first. France wants us to establish a merc force to handle things their army or the Legion can't. I imagine it would be very lucrative but I know squat about the military. Nicholas brought it up in front of a US Congressman who has been nominated to be ambassador to France. Publicly he supported the UN option, as I did, but as he was leaving he told me he could hook me up with men and equipment if I 'changed my mind'."
"It is an idea we kicked around years ago but abandoned when the unity of our regions began to weaken. No one trusted the other not to use the force for regional or even personal gain."
"So you think it's viable? Like I said, I know squat about the military although I've got a wish list a yard long. I'll drop it by for your comments."
"It's worth studying. Why not let Hugo take a crack at it? Now, the personal questions, Chuck? Are you and Hannah still having problems?"
"She's having problems, not me. I just leave like she tells me. Last night, she started in on my old handler who, incidentally, is engaged to Stuart, the congressman. We had him over to dinner to square him away and he won't be coming back to France. However, Hannah seems to think I want to be with Walker when nothing could be further from the truth. What the hell is wrong with her?"
"She's obviously jealous, Chuck. You…"
"No. She's not jealous. She would have been jealous two years ago when she was still hanging around Paris. No, this is all recent. In fact, just since we got married. Jacques, I take my wedding vows seriously. I never break my word. She knows that. But since we got married and came back from Thailand it's like she's another person."
"Have you asked her about her life in the camp? Have you dredged up memories with your questions?"
"What questions? I've never asked her about her experiences with her mother in the refugee camp for just that very reason. I don't want her reliving those horrible years. We never should have gone to Thailand. We should have gone to Majorca or the Canaries or even the Bahamas but no. She wanted Thailand and a trip to show me her 'roots'. Since then she's been like a different person, picking fights, taking arguments to bed, obsessing over Walker."
"Maybe you should ask her what's bothering her. Isn't that all the rage now, being open and totally honest with your partner?"
"Jacques, if she wants me to know about her time in the camp I figure she'll tell me. It never came up before. She never mentioned her childhood at all except when we first met, and nothing until we came back here from Thailand and then she focused on the kids and her fear that I'll leave her for Walker."
"Would you go be with the CIA agent if there were no consequences?" He asked the same question a different way.
"Nope. No desire at all to experience all that drama again. The only woman in my life in Hannah. Now, old man with decades of experience, give me some advice. I'm dying here, Jacques. She's driving me nuts over a fixation she has on Walker."
"Ask her why this woman is suddenly a threat to her after two year's time? Ask her why what you've said and done is not enough. Ask her, Charles, and don't take no for an answer."
"That's good advice. I'll do it right now. I'm also thinking maybe we both should see the therapist I got after the whole infertility thing. She helped a lot."
"Just be careful. She's not as tough as she looks, Chuck."
"You wouldn't say that if you'd seen her in Thailand. She was a tigress!"
Arlington, VA
Sarah Walker and Megan Stuart were shopping for last minute school supplies at the huge mall that was open 24-hours a day. She loved doing it and didn't begrudge Megan a second of her time. No one had ever taken the time to help her, guide her or correct her fashion errors until she joined the CIA.
"So, Sarah, are you excited about next month? The wedding, the honeymoon…" Megan was a typical teenager with an imagination to match her raging hormones.
"Yeah, I am. The closer it gets the more nervous I get. How about you, Maid of Honor?" It was an easy decision. Ellie had disappeared a few months after Chuck died and she had no one else to ask. Carina was definitely out and she had no other friends. Everyone associated with the Intersect project had gone to ground, disappeared or been reassigned to deep cover. She'd heard that Casey was 'legit' in Paris with Forrester as his undercover partner. Everything seemed to fall apart in Paris.
"Your dad's frantic over the guest list. He faxed me a few additional names to consider inviting. Some people he met in Paris and will have business dealings with in the future."
"Um, Sarah, do you really want to get married? You don't seem all that thrilled with marrying my dad. He loves you so much and you just seem to treat him like a friend 'with benefits'." She also had a way of cutting through to the heart of any discussion. Sarah found this refreshing as long as it didn't include her in the topic.
"Yes, of course. What makes you say such a thing? Friends don't get married Megan. People in love get married." She wanted off this topic without further stirring Megan's imaginary pot. Of course she wanted to get married. They'd been living together and it was only natural to make it 'legal'.
"Okay. I can take a hint. Just don't hurt him, please? He really loves you and losing you on top of mom, well, I don't know how he'll handle it."
"Megan Stuart, you listen to me. I love your father. We're getting married and I'm hoping we can add another Stuart to the family. Does that put your mind at ease?"
"Ewww, parental sex! Yuck!" They both laughed and Sarah breathed a sigh of relief accompanied by a moment of clarity. 'I really do love Mike. Really, I really do.' She smiled and spotted the GAP and headed that way.
Chateau Almandine
He walked up to their suite of rooms but she'd already gotten up and probably was down with the kids getting them organized for the day. Su-Fi had to go into Paris for an ophthalmic exam. Hannah and Ellie had made the appointment and he'd learned of it well after the fact. That pissed him off. She was his daughter, too, and he expected to be included in the decisions of parenting.
No matter where he went she was always one step ahead of him. He finally resorted to calling her on her cell phone.
"Hannah, we need to talk. I know you and my sister the neb are taking Su-Fi in for an exam but I wanted to talk to you before…"
"Say what you have to say, Chuck. We're late and I have get going if we're going to make our appointment." She didn't want to speak with him until she'd sorted out what she had to say. She would tell him everything and hoped he still loved her as much as he had before they married. But not here, not on the phone, and not in their bed. It had to be neutral ground like a hotel.
"Perhaps I should make an appointment. Who is your social secretary these days, Ms. Nguyen? I'll just ask her to pencil your husband in when you have a few free minutes."
He hung up the phone hating that cell phones did not allow the satisfaction of slamming the handset into the receiver.
"How long are you going to avoid him? Honestly! You're treating him exactly like Walker did when he came back from Europe. You keep screwing around with him and you'll find yourself on the shelf with the rest of the women who hurt him. And it's getting damned crowded up there."
Ellie got out of the car and stormed off muttering curses and waving her hands in the air. 'Jesus, Chuck must be nuts to put up with her shit.' She walked into the kitchen in search of Hugo. She needed a hug.
'Well, it looks like I get to go to Paris with Su-Fi alone. We'll turn it into a shopping day after her appointment. There's still a lot she needs.'
Hannah motioned Henri to 'get a move on' and sat back and began reviewing vocabulary words with Su-Fi. It wouldn't be long before she would be reading as well as any other 8-year old. All they had to do was continue the vitamin supplements and get a prescription for her corrective lenses today.
Just as the Bentley entered the main road from the Chateau drive a delivery van parked on the shoulder of the road suddenly pulled out in front of the car, blocking the road.
Henri fumbled with his H&K submachine gun on seat beside him, yelling at Hannah and Su-Fi to get down on the floor of the car. He pushed the GPS panic switch and pushed open the door but it was too late. Three men grabbed him from behind and threw him to the ground and disarmed him and secured him with zip ties and then pulled a kicking and screaming Hannah and Su-Fi out of the car and carried them to a car parked in front of the delivery van.
Daniel Shaw walked over to where Henri was struggling to sit up. "Oh, don't get up on my account, Henri Bouchard." He laughed and fired a single round into Henri's leg. He threw a cell phone onto his lap and said, "Tell Director General Dubois that I'll be in touch. He owes me and now it's payday."
He turned and joined his other associates in the waiting car. They were going to go to the last place anyone would look for them.
Chateau Almandine
The klaxon alarm sounded throughout the buildings and grounds of the Chateau complex. A security officer found Chuck in his office and briefed him on the situation. The alarm on the Bentley carrying his wife and daughter to Paris had been triggered and a reaction team was already on the move. He was needed at the scene.
Five minutes later a weeping Henri had described what had happened. "They took them and gave me this cell phone and said they would be 'in touch'. I know the man who led them. He was a Ring deep cover operative in the CIA named Silas Thorne. I don't know his cover name. He is seriously disturbed. The Director General cut him loose after his intel led us into many ambushes and we lost many operatives. He has them, Chuck. I'm sorry. I couldn't do anything. It happened too quickly."
"Take him to the dispensary at the Chateau. I'll want a small team ready to fly out at a moment's notice. All we can do now is wait until they contact us. I'll be at the Carriage House with the Director." Chuck was not looking forward to the discussion with Jacques.
Carriage House
"Damn him! I should have had him shot when I saw his photo when you first came to us. He's Silas Thorne and he uses his CIA cover name Daniel Shaw in most cases. He turned on us, became lost in his cover and betrayed several teams to the Combine."
"Why didn't you? You should have. Why didn't you?"
"Because I wanted to believe that you were what you said you were. I underestimated him. I provided the CIA with his location in Austria but they botched the assassination. I'm sorry, Chuck, I should have taken him out and just hoped you were being honest with us. You are and always have been a trusted operative. Now I'll lose my daughter and granddaughter because I did not do what I knew I should have. I'm sorry."
The cell phone rang and Jacques reached for it but Chuck slapped his hand away and answered, putting it on speaker phone.
"This is Bartowski, Shaw, or should I say Thorne? You have some people and I want them back. You have 1 hour to contact me with a location and I'll send a team to pick them up. You'll have 24 hours to leave France and disappear. I'll even sweeten the pot and provide a little nest egg to see you well into your retirement – provided not a single cell has been disturbed on either of them, understand?"
"B – Bartowski? You're dead! I had you killed! Well, this is a surprise, Chuck! I see you were successful in your mission? And now this makes this even sweeter. Life is good, isn't it, Chuckles?"
"Yes, very successful. Yeah, and up until this moment life has been very good and satisfying. I'm now the Ring's Director General so what I say goes, understand? I can make promises and you'll know they'll be kept."
"And why should I believe you? You're a professional liar; we all are. Is Sarah there? She's part of the ransom now, Chuck. I owe her for so many things. Did you know she killed my wife, Eve? Did you know she found me in Austria and almost killed me? Bring her and 10,000,000 Euros to a location we'll announce later and I'll swap you the two half-breeds for Walker and the money."
"Can't do that, Shaw. She's out of the Agency, married and no one can find her. I know, I tried, so it's just the money for the two. I can't deliver Walker. No one can."
"That's too bad. I believe you, Chuck. I'd forgotten you were the straight-arrow boy scout of the agency. Too bad, though. Half the ransom demand means you only get one of the hostages back. Choose which one you want and I'll accept the money and release her. The other one…so sad."
"What? I'll double the money. Don't…"
|BANG|
"Oops! Sorry about that, Chuck. So, bring the money to the Café Lafayette at 11pm this evening. You'll be directed from there. Again, sorry 'bout that. My trigger finger slipped." He hung up, laughing hysterically.