Hello. I apologize for taking so long to update this. However, work has decided to intrude as of late. Lots of changes going on, and at this point, I'm lucky to be hanging onto my job. But that's how life goes, I suppose. If this chapter isn't up to my usual goofiness, I apologize. Work and life in general has been a bit on the stressful side as of late. Of course, a hobby like this is supposed to relax me, but I haven't quite figured out how to do that.

This chapter jumps back and forth between different dates, so watching the section headings will be helpful. Also, I decided to split the ending into three shorter chapters rather than two long ones because it gives me room to operate. Plus, it also gives me time to get it organized the way I want it. Of course, my definition of a short chapter is still over 4,000 words. As always, thanks to BDaddyDL for his help on this. He really liked my Casey joke in this.

I hope you like the chapter, and please leave reviews. Thanks!

Unknown Location
March 20, 2033
7:30 PM

He sat cross-legged on his bunk in deep meditation. It wasn't something one would expect the average prisoner to do, but the one thing that was in abundance in prison was time. One had to find a way to occupy their time while on the inside. And revenge was something that gnawed at the psyche far too much. After a few years, someone who tried to thrive on vengeance would end up as an empty shell, completely worthless to themselves. Patience and preparation were the keys. One had to be ready when the opportunity presented itself.

Four months ago, opportunity came knocking. More accurately, it beeped.

He had exactly 90 minutes every day when he was not in his cell: 45 minutes to exercise and 45 minutes on the computer. He had done some research, careful to cover his tracks on the prison's computer system. He didn't want anybody to know what he was doing. According to the system logs, he spent his time looking at news sites or getting sports scores from ESPN. Sometimes, he read an online Bible just to give the impression he was attempting to reform himself, even though parole was not a possibility. He merely did that to relax the prison administration's posture.

He found the man idly chatting online one night. He knew the man was connected in the government and was also having financial problems. He still had a few accounts that were never found. With the interest earned over such a long period of time, the accounts were valued in the millions. And he showed those accounts to this person in the government. The man was intrigued.

He started slowly, just requesting bits and pieces of information; not enough to get the man in trouble or raise suspicions. But a big picture began to formulate in his mind. This was his chance. He kept the pressure on this man, readying his plans on the outside just as he readied his plans on the inside. It was a great risk, but he felt it was worth the effort.

He opened his eyes and allowed himself a malevolent smile. Everything was coming together, and soon he would have his retribution.

Unknown Location
March 22, 2033
12:15 AM

Two guards armed with tranq guns accompanied the diminutive woman they hired to care for their 'guests'. The woman didn't know much, and she was getting paid enough to not ask any questions, such as why they always cleaned the room at this time of the night with the couple still sleeping inside. But given how intimidated she was by the two guards who towered over her, she kept such thoughts to herself.

The first guard unlocked the door and stepped inside. The other guard stayed one step back until the first guard fired his tranq gun at the two sleeping forms on the bed. The first guard turned and nodded, and the second guard motioned for the cleaning woman to enter. She stepped toward the bed as the guard stood passively nearby. The second guard turned on the lights as she pulled back the covers.

The guard had fired his tranq gun into two sets of pillows made up to look like they were asleep.

The guard turned in shock to see a foot come across his face, knocking him back. He tried to straighten himself, only to receive another roundhouse kick from Sarah. He went down as the other guard tried to go after her. He was met by Chuck's fist. He was knocked back into the wall, and Chuck wrestled his tranq gun away. The man tried to charge him, but Chuck opened fire with the tranq gun, hitting the man with a trio of darts. He collapsed to the ground. Sarah took the keys and tranq gun from the first guard.

The cleaning woman held her hands up in terror. "I have nothing to do with this! They just hired me to keep the room clean and stocked!"

Chuck gave a slight smile. "And you did a very good job."

The lady gave an appreciative smile before losing consciousness from the tranq dart Sarah shot at her. Chuck caught her as she fell and gently steered her onto the bed.

"Ready?" Sarah asked.

Chuck nodded. "And I promise not to jinx it this time."

"Jinx it?" Sarah was confused for a moment before figuring it out. "Oh, of course. By saying it's our…"

"Nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh!" Chuck stammered in a panic, which made Sarah smile.

They went to the door. Sarah peered outside carefully. The hallway was barely lit by a series of wall sconces, confirming their original impression they were in some sort of abandoned hotel. Checking the numbers on the rooms, they figured out they were on the fourth floor. They went to the stairwell and headed downstairs.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence
March 21, 2033
2:15 PM EDT

Alex Forrest-Slade walked purposefully down to the office of Kristin Collier with two Internal Security officers directly behind her, matching her pace step-for-step. Never in her entire life had she felt so betrayed. She considered Kristin a friend. She had even helped Kristin cope with her divorce. But her predecessor told her never to relax on this job because anybody could turn on you. Alex just learned that lesson the hard way.

She threw open the door to Kristin's office, surprising her. "What's going on, Alex?" Kristin asked with a cup of coffee in her hand.

Alex showed the documentation in her hand. "Kristin, you're being taken into custody, pending charges of terrorism and treason against the United States Government."

The coffee fell out of Kristin's hand, shattering on the floor as her mouth dropped open in shock. "What the hell are you talking about? Treason?"

"Officers," Alex said quietly, motioning for the two security officers to place handcuffs on Kristin.

"Wait, what are you doing? I didn't do anything! Alex, why are you doing this? You know me!"

Kristin's words stung Alex. "I thought I did," Alex replied softly, feeling the pain of Kristin's betrayal.

"I didn't do anything!" Kristin screamed as the guards led her away. "How could you even think that of me? I would never do anything to hurt you!"

Alex leaned against the wall as she tried to regain her composure. Her breathing was shallow but slowly returned to normal. It had been over twenty years since she felt hurt like this, but that didn't help her one iota.

Unknown Location
March 21, 2033
11:00 PM

Lights out occurred ninety minutes ago. This supermax facility was supposed to be one of the most secure in the country, using the most high-tech surveillance and escape countermeasures of any prison in the country with a similar designation. But that simply meant it required more than just grabbing a gun and shooting your way out. Someone with enough intelligence and planning could escape.

He was such a person, and the first phase was already in place.

Thanks to a piece of metal he fashioned with parts from his radio, he was able to disable the lock on his cell without it registering on the electronic sensors in the block station office where the guard kept close watch. With all of the lights out in the facility, the block guard relied on heat sensors to detect any movement through the cell block. But thanks to the customized outfit smuggled into him by his outside contact a month ago, he was covered head-to-toe in heat-masking fabric.

He was ready to go. He opened his cell door carefully, trying to make as little noise as possible, as sound sensors could pick up even whispers in the dark. He kept a low profile, hopeful none of the prisoners were still awake, as he made it to the guard station. He jumped the guard from behind, quickly snapping the guard's neck. He took the guards' electronic keycards, which would get him through the rest of the facility. He then reprogrammed the computer to upload the guard's hourly status report automatically to not raise suspicions with the prison administration.

He made it to the door of the facility. He had two more obstacles: a means of transportation, and to get past the guards at the gate. Fortunately, both of these would be taken care of by a guard he knew was on the take from a couple of the gangs in the prison. The guard agreed to look the other way while these gangs took care of their 'affairs' in exchange for favors from gang members still on the outside. By comparison, arranging a state trooper vehicle was easy money for the guard.

He slipped into the back seat of the vehicle and simply waited for the guard to arrive following the conclusion of his shift. The guard entered the vehicle several minutes later, drove to the exit of the facility, and signed out with the on-duty guards like he did every single night. He drove for several miles before pulling up to a stoplight a few miles away from Interstate 65. He put the car and park and turned to face his bankroll, who was still hiding in the back seat.

"You're clear of the prison. Now if you want to stay that way, I want to see a bank account number and password," the guard said decisively.

The man lay still for a moment before sitting upward. "No problem," he replied.

He pulled out a shiv hidden in his sleeve and plunged it into the guard's neck, giving it a vicious twist. The guard grasped his throat as he collapsed onto the front seat. The man casually reached out of the window to open the door. He then opened the driver's side door and pulled the guard out of it. He took the guard's wallet and gun and got behind the wheel of the state trooper vehicle. He drove off into the night, heading for the abandoned hotel. His guests would be in for quite a surprise.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence
March 21, 2033
3:00 PM EDT

Alex sat at her desk holding her head in her hands, still distraught over having to place Kristin under arrest. She knew the position of Director of National Intelligence would be one of constant stress. Certainly she had her share of rough times, particularly in those first few years after she took over for General Diane Beckman. But she survived by trusting the people she brought into the fold. Today, one of those people turned on her, and she was having difficulty accepting it.

She heard a gentle knock on the door. "Yes?" she said weakly without looking up.

"Um, I could come back later if you want, Aunt Alex," John said timidly.

Alex looked up and managed a weak smile. "No, that's fine." She gestured for John to sit down. "Is everything OK? I know you want to get back out there and find your parents…"

"No, it's not that. Sam told me what happened."

Alex nodded. "I have an interrogation team on the way. They'll get what we need out of Kristin."

"Actually, I was more worried about you. Sam said this woman is a friend of yours?"

Alex looked at the ground for a moment. "I thought she was. She was the first person I was close to since my days at Quantico. Outside of anyone I met through your parents, that is. It was something I valued. I taught her everything I knew about D.C. politics, and she always lent an ear whenever James was driving me up a wall…which is a lot more than you'd think. I helped her through her divorce."

Her voice sounded quite fatigued. "To go through all of that with her…and then this happens…"

"I'm sorry, Aunt Alex. I didn't mean to pry. I just thought if there was something I could do…"

Alex looked at him for a moment and smiled. "You are so like your parents, it's scary. They wouldn't think twice about helping someone else, no matter how bad things were going. It doesn't take a genius to figure out why people trust them and love them so much."

John looked away abashedly before pausing for a moment. "Trust…" he began.

"What is it?"

"Oh, I was just thinking to myself that it seems so weird that someone you trusted for so long can turn on you like that."

"I wish I could say it never happens, but sometimes it does."

"And they found files on her computer?" John asked, to which Alex nodded. "So you trust the people who told you that over the woman you've been friends with for years?"

"What are you saying? You think someone framed her? What would be their motivation?"

John shrugged. "I don't know. But what was Kristin's motivation for doing this? Why would she betray people who are close to you? Maybe someone planted the files and faked the emails."

Alex took the stack of printouts the IT department handed her and started leafing through them again. "I've been through these a couple of times already. The evidence is pretty overwhelming."

"Right, but don't look at the evidence. Look at what the IT department handed you. Is there anything out of the ordinary?"

Alex looked at the paperwork intensely. She flipped to a particular page and studied the email header. She slowly placed the paper down on the desk, and her hand balled into a fist. She slammed it on her desk.

"Found something?" John asked with a tiny bit of Chuck-like lilt in his voice.

Alex turned one of the emails to face him. "If you ever want a job with the NSA, John, you don't even have to fill out an application. Kristin supposedly sent this email on February 28th at 9:00PM. She would have had to have been committing treason while she was completely hammered."

"What do you mean?"

"That was the day her ex-husband made a motion to garnish half of her wages and accused her of infidelity in court. She was a wreck that day, and I took her out to a bar that night to get her mind off of things."

John smiled. "So, Kristin didn't commit treason…"

"Bob Hume did," Alex replied with considerable acidity at saying the man's name. She quickly typed a search into her desk computer.

"What are you doing now?"

"Every computer in this office is monitored and the IP addresses of every network visited is recorded. Bob used to have the only security to run a search, but I had James give me a back door to the program just in case. Bob has underestimated my tech skills more than once."

The computer completed its search. "Dammit," Alex spat out. "Nobody ever thinks to watch the watchers, including me." She hit a button on her desk so the image displayed in front of John. "He's recorded time at several online gaming sites, none of them legitimate. He must be up to his eyeballs in debt."

"And someone paid him to give up the information on my parents," John concluded with a steadily-rising anger.

Alex pulled out her gComm and punched a few buttons. "John, could you and Gertrude go to Interrogation Room Five? I have someone who will be there in a few moments. I need you to ask him a few questions. Yes, those kinds of questions."

Alex disconnected from her Casey and shook her head. "I don't think I've heard him that happy since he found out they were replacing the paper dollar with a Ronald Reagan coin."

"So, what happens next?"

"Um, it's probably best if you weren't around for what happens next. But I promise to let you know the minute we find out anything. Just stay here. If you need anything, just ask my assistant and she'll get it for you."

John nodded. "Where are you going?"

Alex sighed. "To go apologize to a friend."

Unknown Location
March 22, 2033
12:25 AM

Chuck and Sarah descended the stairs to the main floor and opened the door slightly to take a peek. They could see a dozen people milling around what used to be the reception desk. They looked behind them to see if there was an exit to the street, but the door was sealed shut, no doubt boarded up when the hotel was abandoned.

Sarah handed Chuck her tranq gun. "Here, take this." She then began to stretch.

"What are you doing?" Chuck asked.

Sarah looked at him oddly. "I have to get loose before we try this. I'm not as young as I used to be, Chuck."

"You could have fooled me," he said with a mischievous tone, giving her an eyebrow dance in the process.

She grinned and gave him a kiss. "Four days in that room. It was starting to feel like the train trip to Europe again. With slightly less-appetizing food."

"Ready, Mrs. Carmichael?" Chuck said with a smile.

"Ready," Sarah replied.

Chuck threw open the door and Sarah charged out with Chuck right on her heels. Chuck opened fire on the two men holding automatic weapons, nailing each with a tranq dart. The person closest to the door tried to charge them, but Sarah leaped into the air and landed a boot on him to knock him back. She landed and connected with a hook on another man as Chuck fired twice more, taking out two more guards. He ducked down, and Sarah jumped, pushing off of Chuck to land a kick at another person. Chuck took out two more guards as Sarah executed a vertical kick to take out one more person. Chuck fired his final shots, leaving only three guards standing. Sarah blocked a punch from one guard and sent a jab at him while Chuck nailed another man with an uppercut. They turned in time to knock out the last person together.

"Good to know we still got it," Sarah said.

Chuck walked to the reception desk. He tried to pick up the antiquated phone. "They weren't calling anybody with this." He checked the number on the phone. "Area code 334. I think that's Alabama."

Sarah looked through the desk drawers and found an old brochure. "This must be Montgomery. This map shows us near the interchange of Interstates 85 and 65."

Chuck went to one of the unconscious guards and found an iComm. "I need a password to get into this."

"Same with these," Sarah replied as she searched the other guards. "Whoever was in charge was careful."

Outside the hotel, they could hear the wail of a police siren. Both of them sighed with relief.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence
March 21, 2033
4:15 PM EDT

John sat quietly in Alex's office, but his tapping foot gave away his nervousness and worry. He wanted to burst out of the office and find everybody else to know what was going on. This was the closest they had come to finding out what happened to his parents, and he was desperate to knowing what happened to them. He hoped they could get the information from this traitor he helped Aunt Alex find.

The door to the office opened. Casey, Verbanski, and Alex entered the room slowly. Alex closed the door behind them.

"John," she said softly. "We know who is behind this."

John looked between the three of them, and his worry escalated quickly into all-out fear. "What? What is going on?"

The door opened, and Jimmy ran in. "Guys, I know who is…" he stopped when he saw the expressions on their faces. "You already know?"

All of them nodded somberly.

Montgomery, AL
March 22, 2033
12:35 AM EDT

Chuck and Sarah ran outside and saw the police vehicle heading towards them. They waved their arms to flag it down. The police car stopped and Chuck and Sarah ran to the window.

"Officer," Chuck said in a rush. "We were kidnapped by a group of men and brought here…"

The man exited the vehicle and stared at Chuck and Sarah. A grin of satisfaction drew itself across his face.

"It's been too long, Chuck," Daniel Shaw said. "I must say, you haven't aged much."

Chuck stared in shock before shaking it off and went after Shaw. Shaw pulled out his baton and smashed it across Chuck's face. Chuck fell to the ground unconscious. Sarah spun and landed a roundhouse kick at Shaw, who simply took it in stride. She tried to throw a hook, but Shaw grabbed Sarah's fist, twisting her arm back into a half-nelson. He slammed her into the vehicle and shoved the baton into her neck.

"Twenty years, Sarah," Shaw hissed. "Twenty years is a long time. But it's time to collect on what you owe me."

His face was inches from hers. "Your son will deliver the IntComm to me…and then you will watch as I take him away from you. Slowly…and painfully."

Shaw turned Sarah and smashed the baton at the back of her head. She fell to the ground as well. Shaw opened the back of the police vehicle and placed both of them inside.