CHUCK VERSUS AGENT INSANITY
Chapter XII
The Conversation
Her little sister was now looking at her, shaking her head: 'Sandra, Sandra, you know what you're doing is wrong, very wrong?'
"You are still only 5 years old Carina.' Sandra countered. 'There are some things you don't understand. Yet. Sometimes things between adults get …. complicated. I'm simplifying those now.'
"Are you trying to play God here, Sandra?' little Carina was in no mood to let go.
'Which god exactly, you mean here Carina? No it's not God. In the ancient Greek mythology they had this goddess of love, Venus. She had an apprentice. Eros. I'm playing his role now. I'm Erossina. It's just a game you can't understand. Those two have a serious psychological barrier between themselves."
'And I'm fixing it now. Sorry if you don't like it. I don't like it particularly, either. But I've made my decision on this.'
Little Carina was still silent, so Sandra went on:
"We both have been watching those two for more than a year, remember? It was a torture for me, for you, for them themselves. And what if tomorrow Chuck, or Sarah is kidnapped, killed?"
'What if one of them or both die during the next mission? Or even if missions are ok, what if one of them gets a really bad, incurable disease tomorrow?"
"Can you guarantee that something bad wouldn't happen tomorrow?"
Sandra couldn't stop herself now:
'You were with me there, at the sanatorium, Mom, Dad and you, and then, 50 minutes later they told me you are all dead, remember?' She swallowed hard, 'No, I'm not in the mood of taking chances.'
Her little sis was less confident now but still didn't want to give up.
'Yes, you have a point here, but think – how would they feel tomorrow when they find out that they have been manipulated into this? Ah?'
'First, they wouldn't find out. Second, this whole this was so ridiculous. Week after week, month after month, those two have been torturing themselves, breaking up, getting back together, on and on and on.'
Sandra had raised her voice. 'This is like a stupid movie, or a TV series, where the creators prevent the main characters to get together until the very end. Why? Because their ratings will drop of course. '
'Who is the manipulator here? Ah, sis? Your moral highness, could you answer that?',
Sandra was trying to control her anger. She had never talked to her sister like that.
'But you realize how wrong this is, don't you?' Her little sister simply wouldn't let go. 'Wrong, wrong, wrong,' she was singing it in her childish way.
'Yeah,' Sandra agreed. 'That's what I am. A secret agent who uses the wrong methods to achieve my goals. I often solve problems that way. That's what life made me. It's a bit too late for me to change. Sometimes ends justify means. Not always. But sometimes. I decided that this is one of those cases. Sorry sis, I'm the grown-up.'
She shook her head and looked at the naked couple in the bed.
'You'll thank me later, you too,' she said, preparing to leave.
Then, remembering how difficult Sarah and Chuck actually were, she changed her mind.
'I'm not taking any chances with this operation.' She said loud.
She went into the bathroom and took a small glass. It contained the most powerful aphrodisiac in her collection.
Then she returned to the bedroom, opened it and left it close to Sarah's side of the bed.
'Now, we are talking business,' she said and left the suite.
20 min later she was back at Casey's.
xxx
After 10 more minutes, Sarah opened her eyes. Mmmm, what was that smell. Very nice.
Wow, Chuck was under her. She realized something had already happened, something she didn't remember well. She vaguely recalled that they were talking about why Chuck had kicked Casey in the head. He was angry about their little escapade at the Barstow hotel.
Her senses were coming back now but she didn't want to move. She was so comfortable. Hmmm, what was that under her leg? She realized her leg was still over Chuck. Yeah, she smiled after figuring out where her leg was.
A minute later Chuck was waking up. He tried to open his eyes. Still dark. "Where on earth am I? Am I already dead? Yeah, I definitely am dead now. One thing's for sure. It feels like heaven to be dead.
Xx
Carina, already at Casey's, turned the video feed on, saw what was going on there and switched the sound and the monitor off. It was for adults only and she still had to talk to her little sister. One more conversation.
The spy in her, however, left the recording program on. Once a spy, always a spy.
She pinched her nose:
'Good. Operation Lovebirds over. Mission accomplished.'
Xxx
Next morning exactly at 8, Carina called Sarah and told her she was outside the hotel. We need to talk, she told her.
'I'll be there in 10.' Sarah got up.
When Sarah went out of the hotel, she saw Carina at the parking lot and walked towards her.
'You look great Sarah. Slept well?' Carina started, smiling.
The question reminded Sarah what had happened over the last several hours. She managed to put the emerging smile down.
Yeah, I slept well. I slept well,' she repeated nodding.
'Good,' smiled Carina. And did you manage to …'
'Listen, I don't like your rogue telephones you know.' Sarah interjected. 'No more conversations. Too risky. Just wait for me here when I come back. I'll be back in 10 days max or so is the urban legend my new chief is telling everybody.'
"I know you can't talk about the mission. Will it be dangerous?' asked Carina.
'Yeah, very. For everybody. Chuck, me, the others.'
'Well, your lover-boy needs some working out you know. Some muscle building. Stamina. At least in the kung fu department.' She paused, smiling at Sarah. But Sarah didn't get what Carina was implying. She was too preoccupied with her own thoughts.
"If you want him alive and well he needs some training. And some more hacking skills, as well. We'll have our hands full here while you're away. Let's go back and have breakfast and try to wake Casey up if that's possible.'
Sarah stopped her. 'Before we go there, one more thing. Carina, you are way too rogue. way, too unreliable, how are we going to work together? Do you realize that this is impossible?'
Carina didn't seem interested in responding to that so Sarah went on, "I checked with Beckman about last night.' Sarah went on. 'She confirmed but she told me that it was your idea to test Chuck this way. Who can work with loose cannon like you? Did you ever think about that?' Sarah felt angry now.
'After this is over and you're back here we are not going to work together, Sarah. I have my job, you have yours. Sorry, you can't change me. I can't change myself.'
Sarah knew her well enough so she didn't try more. She just wanted to make the point in hope Carina finally started thinking more often about her crazy ways.
She hesitated. 'There seem to be some blank spots in my memory about last night.'
'What are you talking about exactly?' Carina asked.
'I remember when you triggered the flash in Chuck and started fighting. Nothing more. Then, mmmm, I woke up, I guess at around 3.30. What happened in between? You weren't here in the apartment, so where were you?' Sarah asked.
'Ah, nothing worth mentioning. We fought with Chuck for about 10 minutes but he was getting tired real fast. So we had to stop. You'll read in my report about his performance in some detail. Then we all went to bed. Chuck, as any gentleman would do, chose the couch so we put you in bed and I was about to take a shower and sleep there.'
'But then I remembered that Casey's monitoring system was on. You know, everything was recorded, including me drugging Casey. So I drove to Casey's to delete it. I was so tired, but I had no choice but to go.'
Carina went on after a second. 'The monitoring system was indeed on there so I deleted the video feed. Then, feeling thirsty and tired, I opened a beer and sat on the couch to rest for a second. It seems like I've fallen asleep there as I woke up in the morning. Why are you asking, what happened here after I left?"
'Ohh, nothing, nothing at all,' Sarah replied waving her hand. 'I just needed to fill in the blanks, thanks. By the way after you deleted the feed of the fight with Chuck, did you leave the monitoring on or turned it off, can you remember that?'
Carina pretended to be trying to remember. 'You know, come to think about it, I might have left it on. I don't remember exactly. Why, what's the problem? '
'Nothing, nothing at all, I just wondered if we would be monitored now again once we get back into the hotel now. Let's get back, shall we?' Sarah smiled at her.
'Sure, Sarah.'
They headed back to the hotel's front door. Right before entering it Sarah stopped again. 'You know, I just remembered. I've had this stomachache since last night. I think it was from your cabbage. My stomach is very picky. I need to buy some herbs from a drugstore and some food products to cook something special for me. You go wake Casey yourself. Good luck with Sugar Bear.'
On this, Sarah turned around, rushed to her Porsche, jumped into it and raced away.
Carina was laughing out loud. Normal drive, it was 20 minutes to Casey's flat. She was sure that Sarah would take it for less than 10 now.
Carina had left the monitoring on of course, but made a copy of the raunchy part on one of her flash sticks.
She was now in the lift, going up to the 7th floor. She suddenly realized what a mistake she had made. How could she forget!
She had left the whole video feed, with the previous segment, where Carina had gotten them together, the undressing, putting the sleeping Chuck in the bed. And then the aphrodisiac. Oh god, Sarah's gonna kill her. She must have gotten carried away by her conversation with little sis.
Her little sister jumped up in her head again, waving her finger. 'See, I told you this is wrong, Sandra! Told you so, told you so, told you so.' She was singing again.
"Think, think, think. She looked at her watch. Sarah must be 5 minutes away from Casey's place. There was no way for Carina to get there first now.
Think, think, think. The trojan horses. She rushed into the suite. Found her laptop, started it and waited for the operation system to load. What if the Windows wouldn't load properly? Their famous Microsoft's blue screen of death. Thank you god! OS loaded now.
She started the client part of a Trojan and entered her password. She saw it connect to the infected computer there. Now she was typing with the light of speed, starting the file application, then trying to get to the directories with the video feeds. So many directories, so many damn files!
Chuck entered the living room. He was obviously in a pretty good mood, humming.
'Wow, sis, some typing,' Chuck allowed, 'I thought it was only me who could type that fast. Maybe you really can teach me something there."
'Shut up, Chuck. Don't come closer. It's DEA operation. It's for my eyes only. One more step and I'll shoot you. Just stay there.' She was shouting at him now.
Wow, wow. Ok. Where is ….mmm,' he remembered what had happened several hours ago, agent Walker?'
'Agent Walker, heh,' thought Carina. ' You two should put up a monument in my memory, you agents.'
'The agent you're talking about went out to buy some food and herbs,' Carina replied, typing desperately.
She was deleting the files now. Good. If Sarah had already watching them, the application she had been using wouldn't have allowed for the files to be deleted.
Carina looked at her watch. No. At best, Sarah would be arriving right now. She beat her by a minute or so. Carina closed her laptop and smiled at Chuck. Finished here. Mission accomplished. How did you sleep, Chuck?' 'Imaginary Kama Sutra may be?'
'Shut up Carina. I slept all night. Too tired I guess.' He lied shamelessly. Offense is best form of defense, he thought and attacked, 'You didn't drug me, did you?'
She smiled and stood up. 'I've drugged so many people so many times yesterday that I don't remember anymore.'
"I'll grab a cup of coffee. Want some?' she asked.
'Me, coffee from you, no, no thanks, how could I know that you wouldn't put something in it?' Chuck was shaking his head. 'Thank you very much. Not in a million years.'
Carina laughed. Another mission accomplished. 'Now you know.' She said,' Be careful when somebody offers you anything to drink or eat. You shouldn't be afraid of my coffee. I'm on your side. But from others …'
'Point well taken, sensei.'
Carina frowned, thought for a second and then said, "Chuck, I'm not read into Sarah's new op but can connect some dots. I think that you will have to take part in a very dangerous operation in the near future. You'll need some serious training, besides your abilities. After Sarah leaves, you should really get very serious about this spy business.'
Carina headed to the kitchen.
Yeah, Chuck had suspected that. That must be the reason Sarah had gone to Washington and stayed for so long. Not answering his calls. Sheesh.
The thought of Sarah took him back to several hours ago. He put his hands on his face. Oh, God, finally. He stayed that way for several minutes trying to process what had happened.
Then something started bugging him. How did he end up in Sarah's bed anyway? He chose the couch. Fell asleep there. And then woke up in heaven. And between those two moments? Something was missing. Wasn't it Carina who was supposed to sleep in the bed?
'Carina,' he shouted but then thought, 'maybe I don't wanna know, do I? No, definitely I don't. Sometimes our brains screw things up, he said to himself, 'we should let our hearts … Who said that?'
Yeah he remembered. That's what he told Morgan at the wedding.
XXX