A/N: Well, this'll be the SAS training finished. Just the espionage section to go and we're back on the story arc. I hope you're sticking with me for all this stuff that hasn't really gone anywhere yet, if you are, then thanks! If you're reviewing, thanks again! One more thanks, this time to the supremely awesome SLWF for an insanely fast beta that allowed me to post this tonight rather than tomorrow.
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With a week to go of the SAS training program, Chuck was still managing to astonish nearly everyone on the course by keeping up with, and on occasion surpassing, the more experienced soldiers. The training group, originally twelve in number, had been reduced to nine due to the natural trimming of numbers in order to make sure only the best made it through.
Chuck was feeling more drained than he had ever been in his life at this point, although at least he was now making it through the morning run a lot easier and without needing Sarah's 'encouragement' to fuel him on the last few hundred yards. Of course, the training was still incredibly tough on his body, and Chuck was discovering muscles that he never knew he had. Unfortunately, this discovery was always a very painful experience. Chuck was becoming increasingly grateful for Sarah's abilities in the art of massage, otherwise he doubted that he'd even be able to move after a particularly tough day.
A few days ago he had experienced maybe his finest moment in 'spy world'. He had finally beaten Sarah at something! That had resulted in Chuck being forced to forego the reward that had been on offer from Sarah for a good day, but he was happy to be able to avoid the couch. Sarah's competitive streak seemed to be more pronounced because of her baby-related emotional instability, and Chuck had found out about it in a big way when they got back to the house after that day's training. In the end, Chuck had been forced to grovel his way back into bed after being unceremoniously kicked onto the floor by Sarah.
"Pugh, pay attention," said Casey, accompanying that with a slap to the side of Chuck's head. "This is important, so try not to screw it up."
The remaining training left for the recruits in the SAS program was to learn the necessary skills for an effective hostage rescue. This would then form the basis for the final test, the results of which would decide whether a candidate passed the SAS section of the training. Today they would be learning how to clear a room effectively and as safely as possible, which would play a big part in any hostage rescue and would also have many 'real world' benefits when it came to assaulting a building that likely housed a suspect.
The weapons that the recruits would be using were simple paintball guns. This was because the 'enemy' in this training would be played by an instructor, and at the close range that would occur in this exercise, blanks would be too dangerous. The aim for this exercise wasn't for accurate shots, just that the recruits could train their reactions enough to get a shot off in the general direction of the instructor. An SAS pair could open and clear a room similar to the one being used, which was an open plan hut with two side rooms that weren't visible from the door, in less than thirty seconds. This was down to the fact that in the SAS, they kept pairs together as much as possible, so each one knew exactly what the other would do purely because of the amount of time that they had spent working together.
Naturally, the recruits were not expected to be that quick, but a time of under a minute was generally viewed as acceptable once the procedure for room clearing had been explained and after a couple of practice runs. By the end of a full SAS course, the recruit would be able to perform the actions without thinking, leaving their mind open to take in their surroundings and eliminate any enemy quicker than they would be able to if they were focusing on where they should stand. That was the aim of any military training; to make a soldier be able to act on instinct and think about their actions later. There simply wasn't enough time in this course to do that, but so long as the recruits had the procedure down, they should be fine, considering it would be very unlikely that they would be clearing a room without police backup.
"Okay, recruits. Here's what we're gonna do," began another member of the training cadre, Captain Melchett. "Captain Mainwaring and I will show you the procedure to stealthily gain entry to a room and clear it before your enemy has time to react. In this exercise we will vary the number of enemies that you face, but you will need to take them all out before clearing the room."
With that, he and Captain Mainwaring jogged up to the hut that would serve as the room to be cleared, and when both had reached it and were standing to the side of the door ("Never stand in front of the door; you never know when one of the buggers is gonna come through it or start shooting," Mainwaring had said to the group). Melchett, who was standing closest to the door, reached up and silently unlatched it. Once he had done that, Melchett pulled open the door, and Mainwaring swept past him, moving rapidly into the room.
He saw the single enemy that was waiting on the other side of the door, completely unaware up until then of the presence of two SAS troops, so his weapon was lying on the table behind him. Before being given the chance to grab it, Mainwaring fired three rounds; two at the chest and one at the head, his paintball gun coughing slightly and kicking a small amount in his hands, but nothing compared to the recoil that the veteran Captain was used to from his favourite rifle.
All of the rounds impacted on their expected targets, and Melchett, who had followed Mainwaring into the room barely a second after, set about checking the other two side rooms. With two loud calls of "clear!" Melchett then moved back to the doorway, tapping Mainwaring, who had been covering the main room, on the shoulder as he left to indicate that they should leave. With a final shout of "out" the two experienced soldiers left the room and re-latched the door. The whole operation was over in twenty-eight seconds.
"Now that is what I call military," said Casey in admiration.
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Take 1: Chuck
"Pugh, you're up."
"Eh?" said Chuck, confused.
"The first run you get to go with your mentor, which just so happens to be me. God help you if you get in my way, and if we take longer than a minute, not even Lloyd's gonna be able to save your pasty ass. Got that?" finished Casey threateningly.
"Got it," said Chuck. "Shouldn't I have a weapon for this?"
Casey rolled his eyes and threw him one of the paintball guns stacked up to the side of the line of recruits.
"Don't drop it, Pugh," added Casey, but Chuck could see what he really meant was "don't drop it and shoot me in the leg."
"Have a little faith, Casey," answered Chuck.
"Just shut up and listen to the advice I'm going to give you. When we get to the door, you'll stand behind me. As soon as I open it, you run in, try not to trip over the door frame, and shoot whoever you see moving in there without thinking about it. Then cover me while I clear the rest of the rooms. Did any of that penetrate your thick skull?" finished Casey, tapping Chuck's head for emphasis.
"Sure, run up to the door, and shoot anything that moves once we're inside. How hard can it be?"
"We'll see. Remember, less than a minute or Lloyd's gonna be down a father to her baby," said Casey, still unable to resist threatening his former asset. Chuck wasn't bothered by it anymore, which unnerved Casey somewhat.
"Are you ready sir? Pugh?" asked Captain Mainwaring.
"Ready sir," answered Chuck.
"Ready, captain," answered Casey.
"In your own time then," said the captain, waving his arm towards the hut.
"Remember, Pugh, silent. Not a word from now on unless it's 'clear!' Understand?"
Chuck just nodded, not willing to push Casey on it while he held anything resembling a weapon, especially with how much Casey was looking forward to shooting something. Casey indicated forward, and the two men set off at a jog to the side of the hut. Casey reached the side of the door first, and Chuck managed to trip over his own feet as he tried to stop and ended up slamming into the corrugated metal side of the hut. Casey shook his head in disgust, but proceeded to open the latch anyway. He knew what would probably be awaiting Chuck on the other side of the door, but Casey viewed this as revenge for all those sandwich conversations.
Chuck ran around Casey's considerable bulk, and before he could even set his second foot in the hut he was pelted repeatedly by paintballs fired by the enemy that had taken cover behind the desk, which had been overturned.
"Ow! Ow! Son of a! Stop shooting already!"
Casey pushed Chuck out of the way and laid down some suppressing fire on the desk, which allowed him to move into the building. Chuck followed tentatively soon after, and as soon as the instructor posing as the enemy next lifted his head it was covered in paint from both Chuck and Casey's weapons. Mostly Casey; Chuck wasn't particularly accurate with his shooting, but at least one of the shots that landed was Chuck's.
Casey then moved through the other rooms while Chuck covered the room, and barely a couple of seconds later Casey was moving out, and tapping Chuck on the shoulder to signify that he should move out too. They walked back to the rest of the recruits, Chuck at least having the good grace to look slightly embarrassed, and Casey looking pretty angry with his unwilling protégé.
"Well, I think we can all see where that went wrong," began Captain Mainwaring.
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Take 1: Sarah
Casey took Sarah aside to give her supposedly the same advice that he gave Chuck, but both of the former agents knew that Sarah had already been trained for this, and had passed with flying colours, as she had everything else.
"Listen, Lloyd. You and I both know that you could probably do this on your own, but it probably wouldn't be a good idea to show too much skill," warned Casey.
"I know, I know," said Sarah flippantly. "I'll screw up in some way, don't worry."
"Are you two ready?" asked Captain Mainwaring.
"Yes sir," answered Sarah, and Casey also answered in the affirmative.
When Captain Mainwaring gave the order, both Casey and Sarah took off at a dead run to the hut, and Casey again took up his position next to the door, while Sarah stood next to him, trying to figure out just how to avoid showing her obvious proficiency in this particular exercise. She worked it out just as Casey flung open the door.
Sarah moved past Casey and entered the room, but she didn't move far enough to the left to let Casey in. This was, of course, done on purpose to show her supposed inexperience. Her weapon came up and she put a perfect grouping of shots into the target's chest, followed by a 'miss' into his leg, again to mask her skill.
She acted as though she had realised her mistake when Casey tried to move past her and found his way blocked for quick movement. As she jumped out of his way, Casey gave her a look as if to say, did you do that on purpose? Or are you just going soft. She answered his look with an almost imperceptible wink, and Casey moved on to check the other rooms. Two quick shouts later and the two of them were out of the hut and moving back to the rest of the recruits.
"55 seconds, not bad for a first time, Lloyd. But you did make a slight mistake on the entrance. I think we'll partner you up with Pugh next time. The two of you should be more coherent than working with someone that you haven't met before last week."
Casey was silently very annoyed about that comment from Mainwaring, but he could see the logic in Sarah's choice to make them seem less coherent. If he was being honest, he could have been doing a better job of it for his own part.
Good luck dealing with Mr. Graceful over there, Walker.
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Take 2: Chuck and Sarah
"Chuck, are you ready?" asked Sarah. She knew that Chuck had the mental speed to be able to complete this task; it was just his feet that tended to let him down.
"Yeah, I can do this. So long as my legs and feet work together I should be fine. Which way round do you want us to go in?" said Chuck, deferring to Sarah for leadership, as he always had.
"You unlatch the door and I'll go in first, you support me if I need it and then clear out the side rooms," explained Sarah.
"Sounds like a plan. It's a step up from staying in the car at least," joked Chuck.
"When did you ever stay in the car?" said Sarah in amusement.
"Okay, fair point. But still, it would be nice to be able to hold my own in the field, or at least not have to have you babysitting me every time I get out of the car," said Chuck, his voice tinged with regret for adding that particular burden to Sarah's already difficult job.
"Hey," she said soothingly. "You wouldn't be the man I fell in love with if you didn't try to help whenever you could."
Chuck looked up at Sarah and could see the emotion written all over her face as she told him that. Not that he wasn't sure she loved him before; taking someone on the run from the government and risking almost certain death in the process, and accepting his proposal had already proved that beyond any doubt, but this felt different. He knew Sarah wasn't very good with words, and he accepted that he would probably always be more open with his emotions than her, but this was new.
Sarah was opening up to him like never before and day after day she was exposing more of the 'inner Sarah' to him. She continued her speech about how much she loved him and wanted to be with him for the rest of her life, and Chuck wanted her to continue, but his body wasn't cooperating with his brain, and before he knew it he had captured her with a passionate kiss.
Sarah was surprised to be cut off in mid-flow like that, but she wasn't in any position to complain about the way Chuck went about it. It was all she could do to stop herself from tearing his fatigues off, which wouldn't exactly help him when it came to getting respect from anybody in the recruits and training cadre.
Casey turned and saw Chuck and Sarah fall to the ground, still locked together as close as they could make themselves. With a muttered "Christ on a bike..." he turned round and looked for something to erase that particular image from his mind. Anything would do. Can't these two keep it together for five damn minutes?! Bartowski I didn't expect anything different from, but Walker was an agent for Christ's sake! Calm thoughts John; don't throttle the recruits, calm thoughts...
A shrill whistle from Captain Mainwaring was just enough to break through the rapidly clouding minds of both Chuck and Sarah. They slowly disengaged from each and backed away, making their way up off the ground (and neither had any idea just how they had got there) and looking down at the recently disturbed earth with differing degrees of embarrassment. Chuck was wishing the ground would just swallow him up, while Sarah on the other hand, who had learnt not to let much, if anything, bother her, was only slightly embarrassed; the only outward indication being a red tinge to her cheeks.
"First of all, Pugh, well done on bagging a bird like Lloyd, but keep it out of the training, or you'll be running so many laps you'll be on first name terms with all of the paving slabs. Secondly, get moving on the exercise!"
He said the last part at such a high volume that even some of the recruits standing behind him, some of whom had been soldiers in various regiments before moving to the Security Service, jumped at the noise. Chuck and Sarah were both startled into immediate action and went to pick up two more paintball guns from the rack, Sarah only stopping to re-button the first couple of buttons on her fatigue top where Chuck's fingers had been a little too nimble.
Chuck noticed that the hopper of his weapon was empty, so he refilled it, and couldn't resist indulging his nerdy side while he had a bit of downtime, not after what Sarah said by way of final instructions:
"Unlatch the door and follow in straight after me, we've got an advantage over the rest of these."
"Which is?" Chuck responded.
"We've worked together for two years, so we know what the other is going to do."
That was when Chuck just had to spoil the serious mood by saying something incredibly Chuck-like.
"Shiny, let's be bad guys."
"Chuck, that doesn't even fit," said Sarah, trying to keep in her laughter.
"Close enough, let's do this," said Chuck seriously, which again made Sarah struggle to force down her laughter, but she managed it just in time to hear Captain Mainwaring tell them to go.
Chuck moved up in front of Sarah, and he managed to keep control of his feet this time, so he silently moved into position next to the door, and unlike with Casey, he seemed to be hyper-aware of where Sarah was at all times. Once he felt that she was close enough to him, he reached up and pushed the wooden block that acted as a latch to a vertical position, unlocking the door. He knew that Sarah was already moving, and he flung the door open with perfect timing. Sarah was through the gap before the door was even fully open, and she saw three enemies this time; far too many for her to take out on her own.
That was when she was thankful that Chuck moved in. Even in the dark he knew where she was and what her movements were likely to be; a product of performing many missions together over Sarah's period as Chuck's handler. Chuck instinctively knew when Sarah would drop to one knee and start shooting from that position to give her better accuracy, so he shot over her head at the enemy coming out of the left hand side room before the instructor/fake enemy even had a chance to react. With only one left, and that particular instructor just about to reach his gun, Sarah went unorthodox. She had had it drilled into her to find someone for interrogation whenever possible, so her instincts told her to disarm the enemy first. This led to the unfortunate paintball gun being covered in paint as Sarah laid a burst into it, leaving Chuck to roll his eyes and shoot the actual enemy.
"Chuck, clear!" shouted Sarah, and Chuck complied, running into the first room (avoiding the 'body' of the instructor) and checking it for further enemies. He shouted "clear", and then did the same for the next room. When both were checked he backed out of the building, and Sarah followed without even needing a tap on the shoulder. With the door shut, Captain Mainwaring stopped the timer.
His eyes widened as he saw the time, and it was with some surprise still in his voice that he reported the time to the two recruits that had just exited the building and were walking hand-in-hand back to the 'command post'.
"28 seconds? How the ruddy hell did you do that?"
As the captain said that, almost every person present's jaw dropped, including Chuck and Sarah's. Casey was standing there with a proud smile on his face, as if he were a father that had just seen his son win the cup for his football team. His look said everything that his threats had tried to hide, but it quickly disappeared when Chuck shouted across "I knew you cared, Casey!"
"Don't get cocky, Bar-...Pugh. You still have to pass the final exam, so try not to piss me off or you won't be able to walk because my foot will be so far up your ass you'll have to drag me along with you."
"So you still can't find the heart to leave me, that's touching, it really is," said Chuck with a huge grin on his face.
"Oh, you little..."
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Chuck and Sarah spent the next few days refining their technique with the instructors, and actually ended up setting the recruit record for clearing a 3 enemy room at 25 seconds, which was about level with some of the best SAS teams. Sarah hadn't allowed Chuck to rest on his laurels with that achievement though; she made sure he worked just as hard, and sometimes even harder, for his reward that night. Somehow Chuck always came through though, which made Sarah wonder just why she hadn't a) given into her feelings before and b) hadn't thought of this incentive scheme.
Now it was the final exam for the SAS program. It was a simulated hostage rescue that would put together everything the recruits had learned into one large mission. Because they had been given rudimentary stealth training and combat training, this allowed the instructors to make things a lot more difficult for them. The final exam took place in the Highlands of Scotland, where there was a lot of dense forest and heathland. It just so happened that it had also rained the night before the exam was supposed to take place, so the recruits would be conducting this mission in the churned up mud.
The group had again been reduced, this time down to 6, so there would be two teams each conducting the same mission, but in different places. Each team would be led by an instructor; Captain Mainwaring led the team that Chuck and Sarah were on, along with the young former policeman Pike, and he was currently going over the planning for the mission, as Captain Mainwaring was naturally the mission commander.
"Right then, there is a hostage being held in one of these huts," said Captain Mainwaring, as he tapped the map that had marked on it the layout of a 'rebel' base. In reality the 'rebels' were a mix of soldiers not currently touring Iraq or Afghanistan and had volunteered for a spot of wargames, and instructors, who would also be assessing the capabilities of each recruit to decide whether or not to pass them from the course.
"What I think we should do, is have all four of us move in simultaneously, and have two covering the entrance to each hut while the other pair clears, and then move onto the next one if we don't find the hostage. Once we have the hostage we have a helicopter extraction waiting for us," continued Mainwaring.
"Sir? I have an idea," said Chuck.
"Go on then, Pugh, let's hear it," responded Mainwaring.
"Sir, if we go building by building, then won't the enemy just move the hostage? If he isn't in the first building we search, that is," elaborated Chuck.
"Good point, lad. What would you do to solve that?" asked Mainwaring.
"Sarah and I could covertly move to the next building, while you and Pike take cover at the side of the first. We have radios, so we can coordinate our attacks and stop them moving the hostage."
"That's not a bad idea, Pugh. We'll do that. How confident are you in your abilities to move covertly? The whole rescue could depend on you two not being discovered. That means keeping your hands to yourselves too," warned Mainwaring with a smile.
"I'm confident in Chuck's ability to move covertly, and I know I can, I did some work with FBI's HRT a couple of years back, and they trained me pretty good," said Sarah, conveniently missing out that her work with the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team was as a CIA liaison.
"Well, that would explain how well you did in the exercises. Why are you taking this training, if I may ask?" said Mainwaring.
"It's been a couple of years since I took part in anything like that; I needed to freshen up my skills," explained Sarah.
"Right then, so we know how we're going to rescue the hostage, but we're going to need an extraction plan to get rid of the rest of the guards. Lloyd, what do you think?" continued Mainwaring.
"Pike seems to be the best marksman in our group, so he can supply suppressing fire from the top of the hill that overlooks their camp. What rounds are we using?" asked Sarah.
"BB pellets; the 'enemy' are all wearing face masks, but they should fly fairly true," answered Mainwaring.
"Good, so if Pike suppresses the enemy once we've found the hostage, we can leave Chuck to cover him in the hut that we found him in, and warn him of any enemy approaches with our radios. Captain, you and I will act separately and take out the rest of the guards. How many did our recon say there were?"
"We sent over a UAV yesterday," responded Mainwaring, playing his role perfectly, as there was a script to follow, if the recruits asked the right questions. Mainwaring's other job was to try and lead the team down the wrong route, as he had done by suggesting the strategy of an 'all or nothing' approach. "There were 10 guards, and an unidentified number in each building. Do you think the odds of 10 against 2 are in our favour?"
"If they aren't expecting us, then we can pick them off piecemeal. You've surely done this before in the SAS, captain," said Sarah.
"I have, yes. Are we ready to go?"
"Yes sir!" answered the three recruits.
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The attack on the base began from just under half a mile away. Sarah snuck to the edge of the forest silently to perform a quick reconnaissance, in order to give her and Chuck the best chance of making it to the second hut undiscovered. Using the map she had with her, she marked on the patrol routes that she could see, and figured out a route that should mean that they only came into contact with one guard, which she could easily dispatch without raising the alarm. She noted that every ten minutes the guards checked in with the command post, so she now had a rough time limit to work with too. With the notes she had taken, she moved back to where the group was assembled to give a report.
"Yes, Lloyd. How did your recon go?" asked Mainwaring.
"From what I could see, you and Pike should be able to make it to the side of the first hut without encountering any patrols if you leave when I tell you to. Chuck and I will cross one patrol route, but if we time it right I can come up behind him and take him out just after he does his check-in, which occurs every 10 minutes."
"Are there any sentries watching the edge of the forest?"
"Not that I could see, sir. The route we take appears to be in a blind spot, and we have a clear run down to the campsite. Once you and Pike are in position, wait until you hear that Chuck and I are also ready, before moving in. We will probably expose ourselves once we move to open the doors, so we'll need to move quickly in and out. Pike should then make his way back up the hill and cover you and I as we take out the rest of the guards. Then we call for helicopter extraction."
"Sounds good, Lloyd. If this works I'm pretty sure you'll be passing. Any questions, Pugh? Pike?"
"Just one," said Chuck with a smile on his face. "Are you sure there isn't a car I could be waiting in, Sarah?"
Sarah laughed softly before leaning in and giving him a soft kiss, then whispering into his ear, "remember that reward?"-Chuck nodded vigorously-"Well if this goes well I have something extra special in mind for you."
"I have no more questions," said Chuck quickly. Mainwaring rolled his eyes and said nothing, only checking his weapon and motioning for Pike to do the same.
"Pike? Anything?" asked Mainwaring.
"No, sir," answered the young man timidly.
"Don't panic lad, this'll be easier to finish than one of my sister Dolly's cakes," said Mainwaring kindly. "Let's move, people."
Pike and Mainwaring were first to break through the forest's cover, moving quickly but stealthily down the hill to the first hut, while Sarah and Chuck covered them. Once they had reached the hut wall, and without alerting any guards, they signalled for Chuck and Sarah to follow them.
"Remember, follow my lead and you'll do fine," said Sarah encouragingly, before she sprang quickly out of the forest and down the hill. True to Sarah's assessment, there were no sentries in sight and the two lovers reached the wall of the first hut in a matter of seconds. She checked her watch, and held three fingers up for Chuck to get an idea of when they would be moving again.
When the last finger curled into her fist, she swept round the corner of the hut and with panther-like grace, she moved behind the guard patrolling the gap between and behind the two huts. The guard was blissfully unaware of Sarah until she had him in a sleeper-hold, which restricted his vocal chords and stopped him from calling out a warning. Once the guard was unconscious, Sarah lowered him to the ground and moved back to the hut as quickly as possible, then motioned for Chuck to follow her.
They moved stealthily into the gap between the two huts; not taking any chances even with the only guard that Sarah had seen currently lying unconscious in the alley created by the two huts, where Sarah had dragged him to avoid suspicion. Once Chuck was waiting at the corner, prepared to fling open the unlatched door to the hut and allow Sarah entry, Sarah keyed her radio to Mainwaring's frequency.
"In position," she quietly whispered. "Move in."
With that, Chuck flung open the door, as did Captain Mainwaring at the other hut door, and Sarah moved in, an action mirrored by Pike. Sarah took in her surroundings, and with her radio switched to Chuck's frequency, she muttered "four" to him, giving him some idea of what to expect when he came in. The guards were unsuspecting, and Sarah dropped two quickly before they had time to find their weapons.
The third had his weapon pointed at Sarah, but Chuck, by some strange form of intuition, sensed the 'danger' to his beloved and moved into the room, firing as he went, and the third enemy was also dispatched. The single remaining enemy quickly gave himself up, but Sarah considered the mission and moved to fire, but she made the mistake of looking at Chuck before she did it, and noticed his horrified look. That was when she knew what he must have felt when he saw her shoot Mauser on Christmas Eve, so she switched her grip on the gun and swatted the guard around the temple with the butt of it, knocking him out for at least half an hour.
With all of the guards dead, Chuck moved into what seemed to be a prisoner containment area, and he saw an injured man lying on one of the beds. After giving him a quick once-over for weapons, Chuck picked him up and carried the man into the main room.
"Sarah, I think we have the hostage," he said, and Sarah nodded in agreement. Chuck used his radio for the first time, saying to Mainwaring "hostage secure, proceed to Phase 2."
Once Mainwaring answered that they had cleared their hut, Sarah left the building and moved to meet with Mainwaring in the alley, while Pike moved back to the higher ground, both to suppress the enemy and give movement reports. It didn't seem as though the rest of the base had been alerted by the occasional pop of the BB weapons, so Sarah withdrew her map with the patrol routes marked on it once more. She assigned the nine remaining routes to both herself and Captain Mainwaring, and then switched her radio to Pike's frequency.
"Lloyd, you have one sentry moving towards you, should be passing the alley in approximately 5 seconds," Pike warned.
Sure enough, the sentry passed, and Sarah slipped out to follow him. She aimed and fired her BB gun at the target's back, grouping five shots in areas that were they live ammunition, would have pierced both lungs and done severe spinal damage before penetrating the heart.
"Target down," she whispered, before spotting movement to her left. Her weapon came up as she whirled round, and the next guard was down in a flash. These shots alerted the rest of the camp, who came running in Sarah's direction, but she slipped effortlessly back into the shadows.
Mainwaring had taken down another two guards, which left five. Three were moving in on Sarah's position, but he couldn't see the other two. His question was answered when he heard Pike's voice through his radio.
"Pugh, two are heading for your building. Get ready. Captain, can you cover him?"
"On my way," answered Mainwaring. He moved to the corner of the building he was hiding behind, and saw the two troops moving towards the door of Chuck's building. They were obviously about to use the clearing tactics trained into the recruits over the past week. When they moved into the building, Mainwaring moved across the street and took cover to the side of the door. He wondered why he couldn't hear any gunshots, but then his questions were answered as a series of rapid pops came from inside, followed by Chuck calmly striding out. He looked surprised at seeing the captain, but Chuck recovered quickly.
"What happened in there, Pugh?" asked the captain in amazement.
"I knew I couldn't take on two of them if they were fully trained, so I got a bit creative," Chuck admitted.
"Which means what, exactly?"
"I pretended to be surprised, and then surrendered. While the enemy were distracted, the hostage used the weapon I had given him from the 'dead' enemies to take out the hostiles. You can ask him if you don't believe me, it was all thought through."
"No, no, I believe you. Sounds exactly like the kind of crazy stunt you'd pull."
"Three down," said Sarah's voice through the radio.
"That's all of them," confirmed Pike. "Shall we call for extraction?"
"No need, mission accomplished," said Mainwaring. "Well done chaps."
"Awesome," said Chuck, and the same word came from Sarah, when she heard Mainwaring mention that. She almost skipped through the groaning pile of barely conscious instructors and soldiers.
When she met up with Chuck she pulled him down for a long hard kiss.
"Well, that was easier than I was expecting," said Chuck when they came up for air.
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Things didn't go quite so well for the other team. They had followed Casey's deliberately bad advice, and it had ended up with the hostage getting shot before they could get to him, as they picked the wrong hut to start with. Those three were given an automatic fail, but Chuck, Sarah and Pike all passed and moved into the espionage section of the training course. Casey at least tried to act surprised when he heard about Team Bartowski's raid on the camp being a success, but he couldn't keep it up and actually congratulated Chuck and Sarah on a job well done. This, as may be expected, almost caused Chuck to pass out from shock.
And after Sarah's extra reward for that day's work, Chuck did indeed pass out, though not from shock.
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A/N: I think I should set another challenge, considering you managed to pass this one too, and pretty quickly I must say. How about 115 reviews? *evil laugh*
On another note, I've been considering doing a one-shot based around Sarah's incentive scheme. Needless to say, it will probably end up M-rated barring a small miracle and creative editing, but I just thought I'd throw that out there; see if there was any interest. So, is there any interest?
Just one more thing. There are some references to a pretty old British comedy in here. I'd be interested to see if anybody caught them.
Press the green button, you know you want to, nay, you should press the green button. Doooo iiittt.