Chuck Versus Agent Insanity

Chapter V

Trust Me, Dear

Chuck was still standing in front of Carina.

'Probably taken over by his thoughts.' She thought.

'Chuck, could you turn around, please, I need to get dressed.' She was still naked under the cover but her tone was different now. Serious. No flirting.

Chuck felt relieved. 'Sure.'

While still putting her clothes on Carina asked, 'Aren't you hungry, I'm starving you know. Let's go get some food.'

'Can't we order here?' Chuck was getting nervous again. He preferred to stay with her and the NSA agents rather than somewhere out with Carina only.

'Don't worry Chuck', she said, reading his mind. 'The NSA team will be close to us. I'm only temporary assigned to you and they don't fully trust me. I guess. NSA people will always be around us.'

'You know, I'm a vegetarian and my stomach is very picky.' she went on, 'so I need to buy some products for me. I'll be cooking.' She smiled at him.

'And by the way, how do you know,' she continued, 'whether some Fulcrum operative hadn't penetrated this hotel and wouldn't put some poison in the food anyway?'

Chuck had to agree. He stayed silent most of the time because he was wondering where this new version of Carina came from. Strictly professional, as he told Beckman earlier. Incredible.

Carina was watching him. 'Still unconvinced, nerdy, nerdy, cutie boy?'

'Listen, Chuck. I know that last year I was behaving a little wild.'

'Yeah, a little,', Chuck interjected shaking his head.

Carina ignored the comment.

'But it was my operation then, remember? It was in my prerogatives how to do it. This is now your operation. You are the big Kahuna here.' She smiled at him again.

'It's only a temporary re-assignment for me.' Carina continued. 'I don't have the freedom here my bosses usually give me. I was read into how important you are. I'm not interested in exposing this operation to any risk whatsoever, OK? It's important for my career too.'

'Yes, Carina, I see.' he mumbled.

'Chuck, I'll have to protect you. Your safety is in my hands. But if things get hot and you flash into your karate mode, then my life may be in your hands.'

He was silent, not knowing what to say.

'I know that Agent Walker is an exceptional agent, probably the best" she allowed. 'But I can be very professional, too.'

'Yes Carina, I understand,' Chuck was still unsure whether to trust her, his tone betraying it.

Carina sensed his ambivalence. She continued:

"We really have to trust each other, Charles. I need to trust you 100%. And you can trust me 100%.'

Carina stopped here. She was now deadly serious, staring right into his eyes as if trying to hypnotize him she said. "You can trust me as much as you trust Sarah.'

There was silence.

'I'm calling an NSA team to escort us to some food stores now, OK?'

'Sure, Carina. Do what you need to do.' Chuck replied while trying to recover.

xxx

During the last exchange Carina had lied twice.

Sarah Walker was nowhere near what the best agent could possibly be any more. She was so goodhearted and much too decent for this kind of work. Indeed, she had been suppressing her human side for quite some time. That's how she advanced in her career. But now, that she had fallen for Chuck, she was failing as an agent way too often.

Carina already knew almost everything about Chuck and Sarah. Ever since the Afghani diamond operation, she had been monitoring team Bartowski.

It was Carina who had approached Sarah with the diamond operation in the first place 18 months ago.

She had already heard from some colleagues that Sarah and Casey were stuck in LA for months and was dying to find out why.

Two of the best agents of two major intelligence agencies. One of them working at a Buy More, the other selling junk food in a German folklore outfit. Isn't that funny? Can you believe that?'

During the diamond op she learned that they were protecting Chuck, a college dropout working at the same electronics store as Casey. How does that sound? Any explanation?'

She new there was something really big there.

And then she had seen him flash. First on her, then on the security system, that had been protecting the diamond. She had provoked him there, saying:

'Sarah told me that you are supposed to have this really big brain ...'

And Chuck hadn't denied it. Actually Sarah hadn't told her any such thing. Carina was just eliciting intelligence on him.

When she checked Chuck's background, everything fitted perfectly. Surprise, surprise! He happened to be Bryce Larkin's best friend at college. It was a child's play for her to connect all the dots now.

Ever since the diamond op she knew he was of tremendous value to the government, and used most of her free time to monitor the team.

She had bugged both Chuck's and Casey's apartments. Only passive microphones, no emission.

The one inside Chuck's desktop PC was a real marvel. It looked like any other of these capacitors, stuck onto the motherboard. It would only receive, no emitting, so when Casey was sweeping Chuck's room for bugs, he wouldn't detect anything. It was just another part of Chuck's PC.

Even if Chuck would turn his PC off, the motherboard would still be under power. So it didn't need its own power source. That's how motherboards had been built ever since the late 90's, using ATX power units, as opposed to the AT units before that, one of her NSA friends had explained to her. She wasn't sure how ATX and AT units worked exactly, but sensed the value of this particular method.

The device emitted only when Carina would arrive at LA, approach Casa Bartowski and activate its emitting component remotely. Then she would download the recorded data and clear up the memory.

Of course, she chose only those moments when Casey and Chuck were at work. She didn't even need to enter Chuck's room and be seen by Casey's cameras.

It was practically impossible for Casey to find the bug. He needed to disassemble Chuck's PC, take out the motherboard and visually compare it to another one of the same model. Element by element.

Sometimes even two motherboards of the same model could be different, either because of different revisions or one could have been faulty, returned to the manufacturer and refurbished there.

This, of course was only one of the state of the art bugs she had planted both in the house, and outside, around the fountain. She was there herself and knew that most of the really important conversations were actually held outside, so Ellie and Devon couldn't hear.

Casey never suspected such a penetration of his security operation. Sweeping Chuck's room regularly with his standard equipment was enough for him.

Carina had heard more than enough over the last 18 months. Conversations between Sarah and Chuck about the Intersect, their tormented relationship, whatnot.

The one, when they were supposed to make love, for cover, when Chuck thought it would be for real, and had prepared for it, the candles, the music … And when Sarah came in, she told him that it is only another cover story. After that Chuck broke up their fake relationship and tried it with Lou.

Actually, she had heard so many episodes of their tragic, officially fake but secretly real relationship that she had gotten totally fed up with it.

Sometimes, thousands of miles away, while reviewing the recording, she would scream at them:

'Are you two insane? Tomorrow one of you two may get killed. Sarah may get re-assigned, one of you may get a really bad disease. You can't miss your moments like that!" Carina was so mad at them.

Ordinary people, in their daily lives, don't live with the thought that the worst may happen to them in, say, 24 hours. Housewives don't expect their husbands to die in car accidents while driving from work. Or that they themselves will develop some bad and incurable syndrome.

Carina, however, had a very different mindset. Life had already bitten her so viciously. The worst had happened to her when she was 9 so she knew first hand that it happens. Some of the really deadly diseases are not even that rare.

She hated Chuck and Sarah's dysfunctional, castrated relationship so much.

Other people had been rooting for Chuck and Sarah ending up together. Ellie, Devon, Morgan.

But nobody any near Carina. Nobody knew as much as she did. The rest knew only tiny bits, whereas she knew almost everything about them.

Then, after the joint operation with Bryce about the Intersect update, Sarah had let her guards down. During the operation, Bryce was able to detect that Sarah broke the rules for Chuck and then couldn't shoot at the enemy, hiding behind Chuck's back.

Bryce even told Chuck about Sarah's feeling for him. Near the fountain. Where Carina's devices were recording.

Then she heard how later, Chuck cut Sarah out, claiming he can't see their future together. It was in the air that Sarah was so ready to open up that night. She had just compromised herself as an agent, both before Bryce and Casey.

When Carina heard this missed opportunity she felt a wave of rage. She wanted to get the plane to LA, get those two together and smack them like little children. Idiots.

Her other lie, or half-lie was about the food.

While Carina was indeed picky, she wanted to go out with Chuck so she could talk to him in private, away from the cameras and microphones in the suite. The NSA people would be close to them but not close enough.

xxx

Half an hour later, thank you very much, LA traffic, Carina and Chuck were at a food store she chose randomly, both picking some food for the week ahead.

Carina looked around to make sure the agents were far enough so she could talk to him in private.

'Chuck, we probably have less than a minute, so just listen and don't interrupt. I know about you and Sarah loving each other, and I wish you well. Sarah and I are close, as you know she saved my life once, in Pakistan. We are competitive just the way sisters sometimes are.

Carina stopped. That was a mistake. She shouldn't have used the word "sister". She was getting emotional. Carina swallowed hard. She was afraid of continuing now. Her voice could be trembling.

What a stupid mistake. Sisters! She should have been able to control that. Damn.

Chuck realized something happened. He was stunned for a third time in less than an hour. 'Carina, … "

'No Chuck,' she said with some anger in her voice. She was reading his mind again, 'we are not sisters. It was a figure of speech. We were very close, we are competitive as girls often are, that's it. But there are three things you should know …'

Carina stopped. The NSA agents were getting too close.

'Hey, how about some meat? Let's go get some meat for you. I'm a vegetarian but I can cook some nice steak for you. How do you usually like your steak?"

They strolled away from the agents.

Once Carina judged they were safe, she went on, 'Listen, three things. First, we are on the same side. I repeat, we are on the same side.' She enunciated. 'Do you understand that?'

Chuck wasn't that sure but nodded.

'Good, second, I'm a very resourceful girl, more than you can imagine. Don't ask how. I can eventually help you and Sarah get together, you two love birds. I know about your feelings and I know even about Barstow.'

She was bluffing here. From her tapping operations she new that something dramatic happened there between Sarah and Chuck but wasn't sure what exactly. She had calculated it correctly that Chuck wouldn't confront her with a question like, "what happened in Barstow'? Even if he did, she would use the approaching agents as an excuse to interrupt the conversation.

She could sense that the name Barstow had the necessary effect on him. Good.

As she correctly expected Chuck was in no mood to raise this particular issue. He looked even more stunned.

'How did you kn…." He was mumbling something.

'And most importantly,' she interrupted, 'I may behave strangely in the incoming week or two, until Sarah comes back. 'Just play along. Will explain later.'

She turned and smiled at the incoming agents. Were they trying to overhear?

She was looking around and said to Chuck, "Have we forgotten anything? Anything sweet for desert? I heard that these days you are a great fan of all sorts of ice creams and yoghurt, right?'

Then they were driving back to the hotel. Chuck was trying to process all Carina had said.

That was a very different Carina. So bizarre. How did she know so much about him and Sarah?

Was she indeed on their side? She sounded so convincing anyway. Still, he decided to stay on the safe side and not trust her fully.

Something was still bugging him. Why did she stop after telling him she and Sarah were like sisters. Her voice was slightly trembling. She didn't sound that confident at the time.

He decided to ask her later.

After another half an hour, they were back at the hotel. Carina was watching carefully whether somebody was tailing them. The car arrived at the hotel and she and Chuck started taking the bags with all the food out of the car. Chuck decided to ask, while the agents were away:

"Carina, do you have a sister?"

'Ah, Chucky Chuck, you noticed. How sweet. I had a sister but she died when she was 5. I was nine then. Leukemia. That's why I got emotional. Sorry for that. If you had a sibling who died that young, you would know.' She sighed deeply with her head down. Carina was now in full control of herself. Sad expression on her face, as anybody would be in her place. No traces of rage.

'Oh, so sorry to hear that, I didn't know,' Chuck was stunned again. He didn't count any more.

'It's ok. I learned to live with that. Could you help me with these bags over there, please?'

XXX