Just a quick note, when referring to the organization who took Chuck I will refer to them in this chapter as Operative(s). The Ring is referred to as Agents. This is obviously only for this chapter.
A/N- Glad you guys enjoyed the action scene last chapter, fortunately I now have people who are expendable on both sides now so it won't be so lop sided. But that does mean I get to write more action scene well this is last chapter with action (unless it gets way to long at which point you'll probably hate where I cut it off). I also, unfortunately, do not own the plane it is owned by Bank of America which I also don't own. I also have no real clue about planes so I hope I got a way to ID them correctly, correct.
Chapter 8- Decisions, death, and dropping.
I did add a bunch of new characters, but don't worry you don't have know anything about them besides whose side they are on. Other than that, they really don't matter.
Also the time stamps are now gone, I assume you guys can figure it out from this point on as these chapters are pretty linear.
Sarah was scanning the airport for Chuck. The helicopter had landed a few minutes earlier and the blades were just beginning to stop. Surveillance cameras had gone out just as the helicopter would have entered their view so she was forced to rely on old fashioned binoculars to see her target. She had managed to find a good spot to watch the helicopter from, no one had left it yet so she knew that if that was Chuck in there she would be able to get visual proof that he was still alive. She spotted an SUV approaching the helicopter from some distance away well that explains them waiting in the helicopter she thought. "Ok Bryce they should start to exit now." She had timed it perfectly as she finished her sentence the door opened and out jumped an older man. Next came a much younger man who appeared to be carrying a SCAR-H. Next someone who appeared to not want to leave the helicopter as he was unceremoniously pushed out of the helicopter the older figure who first exited immediately snapped to attention and she could tell he was angry and yelling at the others. He helped whoever it was that had been pushed out up to their feet and when he rose above the SUV Sarah gasped. "Chuck," slipped out of her mouth as she stared at the figure that was mostly shielded from her view by the car. She wished she could see him all to make sure he was unharmed, but he quickly disappeared into the SUV in front of the older gentlemen who continued having words with the man holding the SCAR and whoever else was left in the chopper. "I told you he was alive." She said as the remaining four figures piled out of the helicopter and into the SUV. As soon as the last door closed it sped off towards a hanger. Sarah through the van into gear and headed towards the airport. She had made the decision to break into the airport the moment she had seen Chuck being escorted by a heavily armed man and now she had her target.
"Sarah slow down--what are you doing?" Bryce moaned as she crashed through the airport's perimeter causing his head to have quick, and rather violent, encounter with dashboard.
"Getting the flight plan for the plane in the hanger Chuck just disappeared into." She grabbed her cell phone and hit speed dial three on it, "Casey I'm going to need you to pull the flight plan of the following plane." She paused for a minute as she swung the van around the hanger's door and got a quick view of its N-number. "One-Three-Two-Sierra-Delta, it's a Gulfstream G-V." She was torn between attempting to attack the plane and rescue Chuck then and there, or taking the more sensible route and ambushing it with a team of commandos when it landed. When she saw someone stick their head out and aim at her van with an assault rifle, she knew that she couldn't assault the plane now. She sped away as the first burst impacted the ground in front of her vehicle. A warning shot.
"Great Sarah now they know we're coming."
Sarah didn't respond, he was right, but she had gotten the information they needed. "Casey got that flight plan for me?"
"Yeah Walker, looks like you're going home." When she didn't respond he clarified, "They're heading to LA."
"Casey have a full team meet them us at the airport, they have Chuck and are heavily armed."
He grunted into the phone and she knew he'd brief the General, Director, and everyone else. "I'll get a flight right now, no need to waste any time." She hung up on him and dialed another intimately familiar number to her. "This is Agent Walker I need a CIA plane to meet me at JFK now, we're flying to LA."
"Hang on Agent Walker you know the procedures."
Sarah groaned, she was going to have to go through the tedious process of dealing with Langley's bureaucrats. Bryce was on the phone next to her getting other resources ready for the operation, she was happy that she had at least one agent that she could count on.
***
Gulfstream G-V over Los Angeles
"We're doing what?!" Chuck asked completely confused as they stood near the door.
"No—No you can't he isn't trained, we can just land the plane and we'll drive him." Orion said desperately attempting to prevent his son from having to jump out of the flying plane.
"They'll be waiting for him there we're approaching the Intersect site we need to jump, don't worry he'll be fine. This is the only way we can get him to the facility, and the only way he could have a chance to get the Intersect out."
Orion glared at him, but if he knew that if they landed the plan his son would never get the Intersect out of his head, he begrudgingly acquiesced if it was the only way to get the Intersect out of his son he could bear to see his son take the jump, he would not be allowed to join them though.
Alpha One moved over to Chuck, "You're jumping with me Chuck; just follow everything I say and we'll be fine."
***
"Agent Walker?" The pilot called over the intercom.
She stuck her head into the cockpit. "Yes," she was annoyed at being interrupted during her pre-mission preparation time.
"It looks like the plane you've had us tracking, well some of the passengers just decided to bail out."
"What?"
"A group of passengers just parachuted out."
"Any idea on their target?"
"No idea."
"Any CIA or NSA buildings near by?"
"No idea ma'am, there's a computer in the cabin if you want to check."
She walked back into the cabin which contained a lightly dozing Bryce, "Get ready to jump."
"Jump? Why?"
"No idea, I don't even know what they're jumping on but they must know we have people waiting for them at the airport." Bryce nodded and moved to retrieve one of the emergency parachutes.
"Where are we?"
"Right here and this is a list of CIA and NSA buildings nearby." She said as she pulled the map up on the computer.
It only took a quick glance at the map for Bryce to realize where they were jumping, "Shit they're taking the Intersect."
"What?"
He pointed to a building on the map, "This is where we're building the new Intersect and they're going to jump right on top of it."
Sarah moved behind him and geared up herself while Bryce informed the pilots of what they were doing.
Shortly thereafter she was in free fall heading after Chuck and the new Intersect facility.
***
Chuck heard Ann's radio crackling to life behind him, "LA reports the perimeter is secure however given the level of activity we can't be sure the Ring won't move on it eventually."
"They have the perimeter secured though?"
"Yes they have eight units operating: Limas six, seven, four Bravo eleven, Echo ten, Mike fourteen, Zulus three and five."
"Roger that." She said before pulling her chute. Chuck was yanked upwards as the chute deployed. They continued falling although now she was able to accurately deploy onto their target. The team each hit their targets with their usual accuracy. "Team ten move in and secure the building." Chuck heard from the radio just before they hit the ground.
"We might have a problem. The receptionist, at the very least, is Ring. Unknown further contacts."
"Can you neutralize her?"
"She was no problem, but if there's any more Ring operatives they're not going to have to go through to fake greeting she did."
"Good luck."
***
"Contact, there is a definite Ring presence here." The voice came over the radio followed by gunfire.
Echo turned to Chuck and the rest of his team. "We're taking a straight shot to the Intersect room, be on guard we have Ring agents in the building. Chuck do you have everything?"
He pats himself where he'd stored the numerous pieces of Intersect gear he'd been given and nods. He then takes the wrist computer, Orion's own, and begins checking out the different possible routes to the room they could take. He realizes that there's a ventilation system he can use to get in if he needed to.
"How's our extraction route we may need to extract Cardinal." He said calmly as the team walked through the front door casually; they know that the lobby has been cleared and that the other team was in the midst of clearing the building.
"Wait who's Cardinal?" Chuck asked confused, it sounded like him they were talking about, but he wasn't aware of any need for a codename.
Alpha One answered him quietly, "You are, we aren't going to announce that we have you here, your codename is Cardinal." They heard the echoes of gunfire throughout the building. Reports came in over the radio, some of their people are dying, and some are killing. They started making their way up the stairs to the Intersect room when they heard an exchange of gunfire two floors up. A flurry of hand signals resulted in Chuck being hidden behind the two female members while Echo and Lima began sprinting up the stairs heading for the battle. The other team member dropped back behind Chuck to cover their rear in case anyone attempted an ambush.
"How'd you come up with that?"
"Computer randomly came up with it why? I kinda like it." She smiled at him, he was obviously nervous about the fighting and she hoped to calm him down a bit.
"I guess it's ok."
***
The two senior members had hit the landing where the fighting was in a matter of seconds. They saw two of the LA team's operatives, Mike fourteen and Zulu three, pinned down just outside the stairwell by a number of Ring agents. Not willing to waste any time the pair quickly set up on the door. Echo held out his hand with a rapidly disappearing number of fingers, a moment after the final one disappeared they spun out from opposite sides of the door and opened fire. The fusillade of bullets tore through one Ring agent, killing him, and wounded another. The two formerly stranded operatives advanced slowly towards the end of the hallway and the door they needed to secure.
They didn't notice the small little crevice that one mortally wounded ring agent had crawled into. As the first operative walked past it he opened fire, the vest and body armor he had been wearing were of no use the first shot cut through his side where his body armor was far too weak to resist its power and shredded his lung, the second destroyed his heart, killing him, and the final shot hit him in the gut not that it mattered.
The surviving LA team member quickly stopped seeing his friend dead. He hugged the wall, angled his gun around the corner and emptied half his clip into the bastard who'd just killed his friend. "Zulu Three is down. Second floor landing clear." He reported moving over to the door and locking, mining, and wiring up the door with sensors.
"Third floor?" Lima called over the radio.
Everyone froze as no response came over the radio. Echo, Lima and the agent they had rescued proceeded carefully up the next set of stairs. "We're taking too many causalities we're going to have to risk the elevator. We'll try and rescue anyone here you take Cardinal and head to the elevator."
"Yes sir." Alpha One replied before issuing several rapid fire hand signals to her two teammates. They moved out Sierra on point, Alpha Two still on the six.
***
As the trio approached the third floor landing they saw the remnants of some sort of explosive, multiple bullet holes, and blood. Way too much blood for any one person to have bled. Looking up further at the stairs they noted a pair of bodies on the landing above them. "Ring agents must have been waiting to ambush them looks like they got a nasty surprise when they were found." Lima commented dryly as they turned away from the stairwell and towards the hallway.
They entered the war torn room carefully attempting to avoid slipping on the blood soaked floor. Walking further in they heard someone moaning. The hallway they were in—the one directly adjacent to the stairs—was empty so they moved through the door at the end of the hallway towards the wounded man. Opening the door only about halfway they were met with a grizzly and then violent sight. First they noticed one, then two, then three and finally a fourth body strew unceremoniously across the room. Echo heard the LA agent gasp, he looked at him and noticed the unrestrained horror on his face. His mortified state was directed at one of the female bodies. "Your girlfriend?"
"Almost, we were going to go out for drinks after the mission." The operative answered as he wiped the emotions from his face.
Echo solemnly nodded, Lima grunted. They knew the score, both knew that there was a reason why it wasn't a good idea for team members to get involved with each other. Better to ignore the emotions and live then feel them and die.
Recovering from the initial grizzly sight they finished opening the door and quickly located the origin of the moaning which had begun to turn into screams of pain. Someone, they couldn't tell his affiliation due to the blood, wounds, and the side room he was partially in. They scanned the rest of the hallway and seeing that it was empty moved to aid, or interrogate, the wounded man. They checked the room that his upper body was laying in and then dropped down to ascertain his allegiance and provide medical assistance.
"Shit this guy looks like he's one of the original NSA guards."
"Can't believe any survived." He hit his radio, "We need a medical team in room three zero seven multiple gunshots."
"Inbound, is it clear?"
"Yeah."
"Then go take care of the everything else I'll be fine."
"Echo ten, this is Echo six do you copy?" They didn't have time to wait for a response as they heard another door being opened across the hall.
The figure that emerged was clearly no threat; a bruised, bloodied, and repeatedly wounded Echo ten emerged from the room. "Yeah I'm all that's left of my team." He managed to get out before he collapsed to the floor coughing up blood.
"We need a medic here double time, Echo ten is hit badly."
"I'm on my way."
"We have no idea how many are around, but there are quite a few I'm sure."
He turned to his dying colleague, "Did you get any of them?"
"Yeah, but they forced me into that room and I guess they took their dead with them."
"This area looks abandoned now, I'm leaving Mike here but me and Lima have to go with the Intersect are you going to be okay?"
"Your growing soft old friend, go."
The New York operatives departed without another word.
***
"Bryce isn't this facility supposed to have people in it?" Sarah whispered as they continued their trek through the seemingly desolate facility.
"Well considering the receptionist wasn't present, someone's been here and probably hid her body same for everyone else I'd bet."
"We need to get to the Intersect who knows what they'll do to Chuck after they…they get it." She was reluctant to even give voice to her concern that they would have killed him after entering the Intersect room, but she longed for him to reassure her that nothing would happen.
He didn't, "They'll probably just kill him once they have their own Intersect so let's cut the chatter and rescue him."
She nodded turning slightly away from him as the emotional strain of going from being on a date with him, to having him kidnapped, to everyone trying to convince her he was dead, to finding out that he was alive, to finding him in the hands of people with guns who were taking him back to the Intersect facility probably to use him in some way and then kill him threatened to overwhelm her.
They walked over to the elevator, there wasn't one on the first floor so they'd had to head up to the second in order to access it, and pressed the call button. It was a rather humorous sight the two CIA agents standing around in a seemingly abandoned building waiting for the elevator to arrive.
"You know judging by the floor it's on and where it's going I'm guessing that they're actually in the elevator themselves right now."
"Yeah hopefully we'll have enough time to get up there." The elevator took an agonizingly long time to head up the last couple of floors. As it slowly hit the top one Sarah's phone rang. "What is it Casey now is really not the time." She barked angrily into the phone.
He growled (#22 I'm on your side don't mess with me) "We raided the jet, Walker, your boyfriend wasn't on it."
"Then he must be here."
"The team is en route."
It'll be over before they get here she hung up as the elevator dinged signaling its arrival. The pair stepped inside guns at the ready.
***
The gunshots echoed dinged around the corner as the Ring agents attempted to crack into Intersect room and keep Chuck out. The return fire was just as furious as they attempted to get into the room and prevent them from accessing the new Intersect.
"There's too many of them we'll never breakthrough in time." Alpha One called as she turned and fired a burst down the hallway.
"Bartowski get us another way into that room with your computer there."
"Uh it looks like we could go through the ventilation system but I don't know if we'll fit and I'm not really good at crawling through vents."
"We'll hold them off Cardinal your going through that vent, just make sure you complete your mission." Echo ordered with grim determination. He signaled for two team members to boost Chuck and for another to provide covering fire. With the help of the two operatives Chuck managed to get into the vent pipe with minimal trouble and no crotch to face incidents.
As he started his slow, loud crawl towards the Intersect when he heard a cry of pain from below.
"Alpha Two is hit, repeat Alpha Two is hit we need a medic."
He heard the cry of pain followed by a thundering of gunfire from both sides. Despite every instinct to head back and aid them, regardless of what they had done to him he still wanted to help them, but he remembered what Echo had told him Finish your mission Chuck. He continued crawling through the vent. His computer beeped indicating that he'd reached his target. As he dropped through the Intersect door he heard the gunfire outside stop. He hoped that it was the Ring that had lost.
Regardless of what was happening outside he turned his attention to his mission. He took out both disks, one containing an "Intersect 2.0" something capable of ending whatever war was being waged outside the room; in the other hand he held the code that would free him from the Intersect forever.
His radio crackled to life again, "Cancel the medic Alpha Two is gone."
He looked at the computer screen. He gave himself a nod, slipped one disk into his pocket and the other into the computer and initiated the Intersect.
A/N- Anyone get the Clancy reference? And don't you just love how I ended it?
Please review I'd really love to know what you think since there's only 1-2 chapters left (depends if I have to combine the next chapter and epilogue something I'd really rather not do)