A/N: Ok another update having some problems with Chapter 24, but working through it slowly. I think after I have finished posting this story I will take a bit of a break to finish the sequel to New Directions. Once the sequel has been finished I will begin to post.
That way I can continue to provide timely updates to this story even though I am having troubles wrapping it up. Do not worry this story will be completed.
Looks like they turned down my offer, so I still do not own Chuck. I felt sure the TRS-80 with optional tape deck was priceless; they thought a ten dollar fee for disposal was closer to the mark.
Don't want to provide spoilers for the season finale but it does setup an interesting direction for Season 5….
Chapter 15
Jenny had finished setting up the kitchen and had made the bed, it was such a shame she wouldn't have Chuck to share it with, but she knew it wouldn't be too long before she would be held in those strong arms again.
They were watching television and it appeared the dust still hadn't settled with more arrests over the Ajala crime family, there was even a pedophile ring found with many men being arrested. Jenny knew that Chuck definitely had a hand in that after finding Michelle and Lisa, she found her self wondering how they were and hoped they were ok.
Jenny knew she had a terrible father, but at least he hadn't consciously sold his daughter as a sex slave, even though it was obvious what Ajala and his men had planned for her.
As she looked around the rest of the house surveying her purchases, she decided that the furniture she had chosen was looking rather lonely in the house; she didn't know what Chuck's plans were even if they were going to stay here, but she liked it here and would have liked to have filled the house with a little more color.
It was finally time for bed and Jenny left her father to his thoughts.
crawling under the covers she hugged a pillow wishing it was Chuck; she wondered what her dreams would be about tonight.
-#############-
Meanwhile Chuck was dreaming, or more accurately he was having a nightmare, this time the dream had changed, not only was his dead father and sister expressing their distaste in him Jenny, was there too. This time it was Jenny that pulled the trigger, he awoke with a start.
"You ok Charlie, you were mumbling and moving about a bit" said Sharon.
"Oh sorry if I disturbed you, I sometimes get some bad dreams" said Chuck.
"You know dreams are your subconscious trying to communicate with you" said Sharon.
"Yeah, I know and I have a pretty good idea what it is trying to say" said Chuck.
"Well you should listen, but not because it is right. It is because it is how you really feel, what occurs in your dreams is only a reflection of what you think, not of anybody else's feelings" said Sharon.
"Why are you such a dream expert?" asked Chuck.
"Well before I retired I was a Psychologist, and I was researching dreams and how they relate to the state of mind of the subject" said Sharon.
"That is very interesting, what is the most important part of the dream?" asked Chuck.
"Well I guess it would be the feeling it creates, for example sex dreams are not always clear cut. For example if you were having an erotic dream but it made you feel bad it would be sign that you feel the relationship you were in was somehow not working" said Sharon.
"What about death dreams?" asked Chuck.
"Oh that is similar, death can be signifying either an end or a beginning or a change, it could just be that there are some things in your life you are not happy with and you need a change. Your subconscious is telling you that you need to do something about it, and don't worry about dying in dreams either" said Sharon.
"Oh I see, so it could just mean that I need a new beginning to leave the old life behind" said Chuck
"Yes exactly, maybe going back to Australia will help you with that new beginning" said Sharon.
This brought a strange sense of hope to Chuck, he had long thought his dreams were telling him he didn't deserve to be alive, but maybe those closest to him are trying to get him to move on, to take the next step. The very step he wants to take with Jenny.
'Oh god please let Jenny accept me, if she rejects me I don't know what I would do' thought Chuck.
Chuck decided he needed another drink, so he got the stewardess to bring him one.
The stewardess brought the drink back to Chuck and placed it on his table.
"You know I have a couple of days lay over in Sydney, if you are not busy would you be Interested in seeing the sights with me?" the stewardess asked Chuck.
Chuck smiled at the stewardess and showing the wedding ring on his finger, "Just the drink thanks, Just the drink" he said.
Sharon looked at him and whispered to him, "She already had seen the ring, but she still asked you, hmmph".
It was time for Chuck to go for his walk to the restroom; he decided that he would go through coach to get to the facilities.
He set off and quickly found the restroom, on his journey he noted a passenger acting nervously and when Chuck quickly looked into his eyes it didn't look like fear it was almost anger. While Chuck was there he decided to freshen himself up, he threw some water on his face and dried it with the paper towel supplied in the restroom.
It was time for him to rejoin the rest of the passengers.
He was making his way back through the coach passengers and he noticed the man was now holding his bag on his lap, this situation had Chuck's senses in overdrive, he quickly surveyed the plane and went for an extended walk and picked two more passengers behaving suspiciously, one in business class.
On his way back to his seat he pulled one of the stewardesses into the galley.
"I am sorry but passengers are not allowed in the galley, you will have to go back to your seat." she said.
Chuck looked into her eyes while she talked and tried to read her body language.
"I have some information that needs to be given to the Captain" said Chuck.
Chuck read the stewardess carefully, and she wasn't comfortable. She seemed to be hiding something; however it may have just been her concern over a passenger pulling her into the galley.
"What sir let me know and I will inform him?"
'hmmm too quick to accept that I had some information' thought Chuck.
"This flight has too much riff raff, those people back in coach are making way too much noise" said Chuck.
"Oh I will make sure someone gets them to quieten down" said the stewardess.
This didn't feel right Chuck thought, he now had to find another stewardess that he could confide in.
He found another one;
'Oh shit it's the one that tried to hit on me' thought Chuck
He walked up to her and they both walked behind a curtain.
"Changed you mind did you?" she asked.
"Ah, um not really but look I need you to get a message to the Captain" he said.
"Look we can't just go giving the Captain messages from every passenger" she said.
"You need to get a message to the air marshal on the flight, there are three suspicious passengers on the flight, and you can only let the air marshal know and the Captain, because I believe at least one stewardess maybe involved" Chuck said.
"You do know it's a crime to make a false report" she said.
"What is it going to take to get you to talk to the air marshal?" Chuck asked.
"Well, why don't you agree to a dinner with me, when we get to Sydney?" she said.
"Ok, if none of the people I have identified turn out to be dangerous I agree to have dinner with you" said Chuck.
"Ok that will do" she said
"Ok seats 47C, 59H, 37J and the stewardess named Serena" said Chuck.
"Serena, hmm she is strange and she has only been working for about 2 months, I will get the message to them, its Laura by the way?" she said with a smile.
Chuck went back to his seat but now he was hyper alert and aware of all his surroundings.
Laura went into the cockpit and told the captain about the suspicious passengers, she also said that one of the stewardesses Serena was acting suspicious.
Laura left the cockpit and went back to serving, soon after another stewardess asked the air marshal up to the cabin.
Soon after the same stewardess that had gotten the air marshal came up to Chuck and told him the Captain would like to speak to him.
Chuck walked forward and found the internal phone waiting for him.
"Sir this is the Captain of this flight, I believe you have seen some suspicious activity amongst some of the passengers?" asked the Captain.
"Yes, verification code, whiskey kilo oscar seven alpha foxtrot. This is a code 901 and this is not a drill, please respond appropriately" responded Chuck.
"Oh shit, can you please repeat that again?" asked the Captain.
"Whiskey, kilo, oscar, seven, alpha, foxtrot with a code 901" responded Chuck.
About 20 seconds later the captain responded.
"Kilo niner foxtrot acknowledge the code 901 please proceed to the cockpit door where we will provide you access" said the captain.
The stewardess looked at Chuck in a new light "I guess this means we will not be having that dinner?" she said.
"Well yeah I am sorry, I find you to be a very attractive woman but I am involved, and if nothing else I am loyal" said Chuck.
The stewardess took Chuck up to the cockpit were he was admitted.
"Sir how can we assist you?" asked the air marshal.
"Well I am undercover at the moment so I am unable to assist in any official capacity, but will assist as a concerned citizen, we have three suspicious passengers, but the thing that concerns me is that it appears one stewardess named Serena maybe involved as well. As I am on this flight solidifying a cover I am not aware of any uniqueness to this flight" said Chuck.
"Um ok, well in business class upstairs we have two known terrorists that are being extradited back to Australia for acts of terrorism on Australian soil" said the air marshal.
"Oh ok, I guess I picked a great flight to stay under cover" said Chuck sarcastically.
"May I ask what agency you work for?" asked the air marshal.
"No I am sorry that is classified" said Chuck.
Chuck took out his phone that had been configured to use the planes own network he called the director directly.
"Director we have a situation, a 901 on a international flight carrying two known terrorists in custody back to Australia, names are " he looked at the air marshal.
"Inmar Mamood, and Muhammad Aziz" responded the air marshal.
"I heard Carmichael, what is you status?" asked the director.
"Well I am on the flight in cover, I am unarmed" said Chuck.
"Well do you believe you can assist in this matter, without compromising your cover?" asked the Director.
"Yes sir, as I am unarmed anyway, I think it would be the best" said Chuck.
"Ok well the men you have mentioned are Al Qaeda but they are fairly low down the totem pole, so not sure why they have attracted interest. What are the names of the suspects?" asked the Director.
Chuck gave the names of the three suspicious passengers and the stewardess, The Director got a hit on the stewardess as an alias used by a contract assassin, she was suspected as being one of the contracted assasins hired to take out Carmichael.
"Sir are you sure on this intel?" asked Chuck.
"As sure as we can be" he responded.
"Does that mean my cover has been blown?" asked Chuck
"No not necessarily, the way she works is very insular, she may have those three people aboard and the names seem similar to some associates, but it is likely that no one else is aware of you or her even being on the flight." said the Director.
"Thank you for the Intel I will let you know what happens" said Chuck.
Chuck then looked back at the Captain and air marshal.
"Well it looks like the terrorists in business class maybe completely unrelated" said Chuck.
"Oh, so is the flight in danger?" asked the Captain.
"Hmmm yes maybe as collateral, but possibly the target is me. The stewardess Serena fits an alias and description of a contract assassin that was engaged to kill me" said Chuck.
The two men faces paled at the total lack of emotion in Chuck's statement.
"Fortunately the person that engaged her is no longer among the living, but there are a few other people that would like to see me dead" said Chuck.
After a few moments of thought.
"It's a crazy world, but possibly the people that your terrorists work for are paying Serena to kill me, it is just a happy coincidence we are all on the one flight" said Chuck.
"What are you going to do?" asked the Captain.
He just shrugged almost without emotion," I will just do what I do best" said Chuck.
"Whats that?" asked the air marshal.
"I will kill them" said Chuck.
"I can give you my weapon, it is loaded with low energy rounds" said the air marshal.
"No it's ok, you need that to protect the rest of the passengers, but you can do me a favor" said Chuck.
"Yes?" replied the air marshal.
"Serena is likely to have suspicions about this conversation, if she heard anything can you please inform her to just ignore any future complaints I may make. Perhaps say that I saw the two prisoners upstairs and was complaining" said Chuck.
"Done, anything else?" said the air marshal.
"Well actually, um if I don't make it, can you call this number" said Chuck handing him a business card with only a number on it.
"And say that can they please pass on the message that the Mustang is no longer for sale. But please make sure you say the reason is because the car failed registration" said Chuck.
This was said with a little more emotion, that the men took as Chuck being worried about his life. But what Chuck was worried about was the effect it would have on Jenny.
"One other thing, I will take out the assassin, but I would appreciate if you could keep an eye on the three passengers I identified. The assassin normally likes to poison her marks so I guess I will be missing out on the Business Class hospitality" said Chuck.
"I will get the crew to order some things for me so we can give to you later if you like?" said the Captain.
"No it's ok, I will get something after it has been wrapped up" said Chuck.
"How long do you think it will take?" asked the air marshal.
"Probably just an hour" said Chuck.
"Also is it possible to redirect the flight to Canberra so we can take off all four of them and anyone else that may surface?" asked Chuck.
The captain looked concerned.
"You can then continue on to Sydney, I am not sure who may be waiting for them in Sydney and would like to get anyone left alive into federal custody asap. Please leave it to the latest possible moment to redirect though" said Chuck.
The Captain looked resigned to getting it done somehow, but not sure how it will look on his record.
Chuck took his phone back out again and made another call.
"Hi it's Chuck" he said.
"Hey how are you going, saw your wonderful woman today and gee you are right, she is a vision" he said.
"Yeah, she is so far out of my league. Anyways I have a slight problem on a flight to Sydney" said Chuck.
"Yeah, I am not going to like this problem am I?" he asked.
"Well a couple of things, I have two low level Al Qaeda grunts on their way to Australia on this flight. But that is not the problem just more of a background. Problem is we have a contract assassin who I believe was given a contract on me, also at least three other suspicious passengers. Assassin is working as a stewardess" said Chuck.
Chuck gave him all of the names he had determined and also provided him further information on the assassin.
"So anyways, I have asked the Captain to redirect at the latest moment to Canberra so you can take delivery of all the goodies" said Chuck.
"Yeah ok give me the flight details when you can, I will fly to Canberra now to meet your flight, I have at least a few hours right?" he said.
They finalised all the details and Chuck hang up.
"I guess you can't tell me who that was either?" asked the air marshal.
"Well I imagine as I will still need to be in cover, I will not be able to be at the handover. So you will need to meet with him anyway. I can't tell you his name but he works for ASIO and specifically with the CTCC the counter terrorism control centre" said Chuck.
"Oh" was all the air marshal said.
-#############-
Jenny awoke the next morning hopped out of bed and came out of her room to look back out at the wonderful view.
She saw her father doing the same thing.
"You know we should have got some outdoor furniture as well, it would be great to have breakfast on the deck with the view over the ocean in front of us" said Jack,
"Well I plan to go out there anyway, it's a shame its winter here or I would have enjoyed that beach too." said Jenny.
"So do you know when Chuck will be arriving yet?" asked Jack.
"Not really, just sometime in the next few days, could be today or maybe the next" said Jenny with a far away look in her eyes.
"Did you want me to maybe stay in a hotel when he gets here, so to give you some space" said Jack.
Jenny wasn't sure what the angle her father was playing, but with him there is normally an ulterior motive when it seems he is trying to be nice.
"What are you up to, you are not planning something here in Sydney are you, we need to lay low and not raise any suspicions in us?" asked Jenny.
"Jenny that hurts, I was just trying to do something nice for you. Besides I am sure I would rather see and hear something else then my daughter getting ploughed all night" said Jack.
"All night, I think you maybe mistaken, it will be all night and all day for several days" said Jenny with a smirk.
Jenny's father shrunk visibly at the comment.
"And you think I would want to stick around for that?" asked Jack.
"Let's wait until Chuck gets here and I will talk it over with him. He may decide that it is safer for us all be here" said Jenny.
-#############-
Back on the flight Chuck was formulating his plan; he was going to get a signal when Serena was told about Chuck complaining about the men upstairs.
He had decided on his plan and now it was just time to put it into action.
He saw Serena and she was coming towards him with what appeared to be a glass and a bottle of Champagne
"Sir we apologize for the problems you have had and would like you to accept this bottle, however unfortunately we will need you to drink it before you disembark because of alcohol regulations" Serena said.
The bottle was an expensive bottle that was only supposed to be available to those lucky enough to travel in first class. But it wasn't the bottle that interested Chuck, it was the Glass that she brought along, He could just imagine the coating of the poison and letting it dry before bringing it out.
He was tempted to drop the glass and hope that the glass would break but it is unlikely as glasses used are not made of glass at all.
"Thankyou" said Chuck.
"Would you like me to pour the glass for you?" asked Serena.
"Oh not yet I will have some soon though" said Chuck.
Chuck was starting to get agitated, he knew that for his and Jenny's protection he had to kill Serena, but he was not looking forward to ending her life. He has a little too much time to consider and while it shouldn't be in this world of equal rights, he did have more issues in killing a female assassin or terrorist then a male.
If she was somehow able to get word out that he is still alive and in Australia that could be disastrous.
Chuck saw Serena make her way towards the baggage area, Chuck did not know why she would be there but was concerned that she was maybe heading there to get a weapon from baggage.
Chuck quickly found her rummaging through bags.
"Oh I'm sorry the, Champagne seemed to have a strange taste to it, did something happen to the bottle?" asked Chuck.
Serena stunned at first but when he had explained that he had the Champagne he saw a smile grace her face.
"Well and I thought the great Carmichael would be a challenge, looks like many people have over estimated you. I laced it with a very powerful chemical that will have you dead within 30 minutes" said Serena smiling.
"Well then I guess I should explain how you have under estimated me. Did you really think I would just drink something you had given me?" asked Chuck.
"How what, but how did you suspect me?" asked Serena.
"You are not that good of an actor Serena, it was obvious you were hiding something and it didn't take me long to find out who you were, so really don't you think you have overused the poison angle" said Chuck.
While this conversation has been going on Chuck has been closing in slowly on Serena.
Chuck saw Serena quickly reaching for something, he could only assume it would be a weapon and launched one of the bags beside him at her head.
Serena had found the knife she was looking for, but only had the chance to prepare to throw the knife at Chuck before the bag came crashing into her head.
Unfortunately for Serena the bag rendered her unconscious and she fell onto the blade she was holding. The knife lodged itself in her neck.
Chuck was disappointed he was hoping he could come up with a way to protect his and Jenny's cover while still keeping Serena alive. While he did not directly kill her he felt directly responsible.
He needed to do something with Serena's body, He noticed a casket was at the back of the luggage compartment, and knew that it would be unlikely to be vacant but he thought he would check anyway.
opening the casket he found bags of equipment from a fencing team that were obviously on the plane heading to Australia. Chuck could not understand why they would be transporting in a casket unless they did it hoping it would not be opened coming into customs. Still the transport of sporting goods would not be illegal.
Chuck decided to remove the bags and placed Serena's body in the casket, being careful not to get any of the blood on his clothes.
returning from the baggage area he took his seat, Chuck noticed the older couple were no longer beside him. The air marshal came over and sat beside him.
"Everything ok?" asked the air marshal.
Chuck very quietly responded "Not really bit the direct threat against me has been neutralize, not exactly they way I wanted. I am going to go into the baggage compartment and can you join me in 2 minutes"
"Um ok" said the air marshal.
Chuck had shown the air marshal the body of Serena in the casket and what was stored in it, and explained the unfortunate accident that ended Serena's life.
"I will also need to take the Bottle of Champagne for analysis but maybe it should be kept somewhere safe until we get to Canberra. I wouldn't want someone to drink it by mistake" said Chuck.
Returning to his seat he gave the Bottle to air marshal for safe keeping.
Chuck noticed the suspicious man in business Class was starting to get a little restless. he overheard him asking one of the stewardesses for Serena and said that she was getting him a pillow.
"Oh I am not sure where she is, she is probably on a break, we can't work non stop for the whole flight you know, I will get you your pillow" she said and disappeared.
Chuck knew he would need to do something soon but doing something on a flight over the Pacific with a plane full of unsuspecting passengers together with a group of combatants is a little problematic.
He knew he was going to have to depend on some help from the crew.
He was looking around cautiously to find Laura the stewardess, he found her and there eyes met and shortly after she made her way over to Chuck.
"How is your flight going can I get anything for you?" asked Laura with a smile
"Well it is a little embarrassing can you come closer" asked Chuck.
Laura moved her head down to his mouth; her ear was less then an inch from his mouth and as he was talking Laura could feel his hot breath on her ear. Now that she knew more about him it had done nothing to douse the initial attraction she felt.
"I need you to spill a drink on the man in business class that was asking about Serena earlier" said Chuck.
She pulled back away from him and had a worried expression on her face and was biting her bottom lip. She then moved back to him and whispered.
"When?"
"Now if possible, I need to take care of the three men and I can't do that when they are in there seats, too many witnesses, I will need you to block one way with the cart so it will send him in my direction though" said Chuck.
"Ok I will do it in five minutes so it gives you time to get in position" said Laura.
"Now I need you to bring me a box of anything to justify our current conversation. I will then take it with me" said Chuck.
Laura nodded and moved of in the direction of the galley.
Shortly after, Laura came back to Chuck and handed him a box of Durex XXL Condoms with a smile.
Chuck didn't pay much attention to the box but when Sharon sitting next to him made some disapproving noises he looked at the box and his eyes went wide.
'Oh shit….not even going to try and explain that' Thought Chuck.
Chuck was waiting behind a curtain near the restroom with his XXL Condoms when he saw the man walking past the curtain. Moving quickly Chuck moved out and appeared behind the man and just as quickly brought the man back behind the curtain already unconscious. He used some cable ties to tie his hands together and checked the man for anything suggesting the plan.
Chuck searched the man and found what looked like a remote detonator.
'Oh Shit, this has just gone from bad to worse. I guess this was the insurance, if Serena failed they would just take out the whole plane' thought Chuck.
Chuck new he had to work quickly now, if each of the three if not more of the men were carrying a similar detonator they could panic and detonate if they can't find Serena or the man Chuck had taken down.
Silently Chuck got up and started walking towards the cockpit.
When Chuck got to the door he buzzed the Captain, he recognized him and let him in.
"Whats the status" the Captain asked.
"As I suspected Serena attempted to poison me with a bottle of Champagne, she has been taken care of. The first of the passengers has also been taken care of, but things have kind of gotten complicated. We need to get the air marshal here but in short I believe they may have a bomb on board." Said Chuck
"Oh hell" said the Captain.
They quickly got the air marshal involved and explained the story, with the unknown factor of possibly two or more detonators existing, the only way was to try to take the bomb out of the equation. They could find and then disarm the bomb, or make the remote detonators useless. It was decided that they should try both plans.
If more then one bomb was on board the detonators could still blow it up and if the detonators worked in different ways for redundancy then disabling one type may not disable all of them.
Chuck decided that he should determine how the existing remote detonator works to quickly come up with a plan to negate them, while the air marshal would be responsible for locating the explosives.
Working quickly Chuck got out his equipment and tools from the luggage and was setup in a quiet room far away from any curious eyes.
He quickly discovered that the remotes where frequency hopping remotes and was quickly able to work out the frequency ranges involved.
Chuck felt fairly comfortable that the men would think three redundant frequency hopping remotes would be all that would be required and Chuck also knew all the frequency ranges that would be readily available if the other remotes used different ranges.
Chuck started making some frequency jamming devices. The problem would be that some of the frequencies would interfere with some of the planes systems but they would have to manage that as much as possible.
Using some components that he had in his luggage and components that he was able to cannibalise from the plane, he was able to make enough of the jammers to cover the whole of the plane.
Chuck had setup a remote to enable the jammers but once they were enabled you could only disable them by physically accessing the devices.
Chuck had a couple of the stewardesses delivery the jammers to the mapped out parts of the plane and Chuck decided to work out the areas that he would locate explosives to do the most damage and ensure that it brought the plane down.
Chuck discussed his thoughts with air marshal and they located a few further locations they hadn't checked.
Chuck decided he should go back to his seat before suspicions were raised; he sat down in his seat and got a dirty look from Sharon.
'At the moment I can't wait for this flight to be over, one way or the other' thought Chuck.
A/N: Who can guess the Line and the movie I borrowed from in this chapter? Please review, last chapter seemed to slightly recover in the number of reviews but would like to see further improvement