Authors Note: And I'm baaaaack! Here is the next installment of Chuck vs Semper Fi, where we'll see what happens to Beckman now that she's in the clutches of Fulcrum, as well as some more action involving Team Bartowski. Also, if you haven't already read it, please check out my one-shot story 'No Such Thing as Second Chances' which is my first (and probably only) foray into Chuck angst/tragedy. Depending on the response that story gets (and how long it takes me to finish this story), I've already got an idea in mind for another multi-chapter story that uses the concept of 'No Such Thing as Second Chances' as a starting point but quickly moves out of the angst/tragedy genre into lots of happy Charah fluff.

Team Intersect Headquarters

AKA Castle

MCB Quantico

Quantico, VA

Class IV Secure Conference Room

August 15, 2006

0100 hours

Chuck yawned and rubbed his eyes. When word had come of Beckman's kidnapping, Harper had ordered both teams into Intersect Headquarters immediately since the information and the details surrounding the kidnapping were so sensitive. Both teams were now gathered into the facilities Class IV Secure Conference Room, listening to Harper discuss the information known so far.

"The security footage from the General's home told us a lot actually." Harper said, "Most importantly the fact that they had help. It looks like one of the agents on the protection detail was a Fulcrum plant. She was just placed on the team two months ago. While the Fulcrum tactical team assaulted the gate and took out the external security, she disabled the automatic distress beacon that should have alerted the rapid response team and got the drop on the General once they headed towards the safe room."

"Any idea on who the Fulcrum operatives were?" Casey asked.

"Unknown." Harper said. "The assailants were masked the entire time, and every piece of video footage we've been able to get both from the house's security system and nearby cameras shows the same thing; nothing but masked men. Even the plates on the vehicle's don't match anything."

"Can we see the footage?" Chuck asked. "Maybe there's something there the Intersect can get a hit on." Harper nodded to Lacey Pearce, one of the team's technical support analysts. She typed a few keys on keyboard in front of her and a moment later, the screen at the front of the conference table flickered to life and began playing the security footage from General Beckman's home. The team watched the video, with both Chuck and Sarah at different points sitting up straighter in their chairs and looking intently at the screen.

"Nothing from the Intersect." Chuck said, "but I thought I saw something. Can you back it up to right before they put the General into the SUV?"

"What is it Chuck?" Jack asked.

"I'm not sure. I thought I saw one of the Fulcrum operatives make a gesture towards one of the cameras." Chuck said. A moment later the video started to play from the requested spot. "There! Freeze that!" The video froze at the requested frame and everyone looked at it. On the screen, one of the masked Fulcrum operatives could clearly be seen making a gesture towards the camera.

"What the heck is he doing?" Carina asked.

"It's a Klingon salute." Chuck said, quietly.

"A what?" Harper asked.

"It's from Star Trek." Jack replied. "The Klingons are a race of warrior aliens. That's how they salute. It's based on the old Roman salute; just slightly modified."

"Which means that whoever is in that video is a nerd." Chuck said.

"Could this be connected to the Puerto Rico case?" Casey asked.

"Possibly." Chuck said. "Which is disturbing in its own right, never mind the situation with the General. If Fulcrum has managed to get in a position to hijack terror cells, we may be in bigger trouble than we think."

"There is something else." Sarah said. "Something was bothering me as I was watching the footage. The tactics used by the assault team seemed, familiar somehow. I mean beyond the standard familiarization one would expect regarding general tactics used by various groups and agencies. But Chuck pointing out that salute is what jogged my memory. I've seen someone do that before during an operation. Which led to me remembering an off-the-books operation that Graham had me run a few years ago. This operation looks almost exactly like that one, minus the inside operative. My partner during that operation was Bryce."

"Well, that settles the question of whether this and Puerto Rico are connected." Chuck said.

"You mean Larkin-" Masden started. A snort from Casey stopped him.

"No." Casey said. "Puerto Rico was too intricate and subtle for Larkin. It might very well have been Fulcrum but not Larkin."

"Casey's right." Chuck said. "Even in college when it came to pulling pranks on other fraternities and on sororities, Bryce's plans while elaborate, we're not very subtle."

"I agree." Sarah said.

"Alright." Harper said. "Casey, first thing tomorrow I want you to take your team and do another pass over at Beckman's home, in case something was missed. Chuck, I want your team to start looking for indications on how they got the General out of the metro DC area and where they might have taken her."

"Yes sir." Casey replied.

"You got it boss." Chuck said.

"One last thing. Until we find the General, we are on Red Alert. Keep sharp. And no one goes home; when we're not in the field chasing down leads we live out of here. Just in case. Chuck, I'm also arranging for a team to shadow Ellie, Devon and Morgan. I'll want you to look over their files before we send them."

Fulcrum Underground Bunker

Location Unknown

August 17, 2006

General Diane Beckman winced as her interrogator punched her in the stomach. She had awoken 36 hours ago to find herself in a cell in what appeared to be an underground bunker. She had been stripped of her uniform and placed in a pair grey sweat pants and a white t-shirt. Her feet and hands had also been shackled. For a full day she had seen no one, not even a guard. Then, that bastard Larkin had come to pay her a visit.

Begin Flashback

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the esteemed General Beckman." Bryce said, smirking as he stood outside her cell. "I trust you're comfortable? We don't want you injured – well, at least not yet."

"What do you want Larkin?" Beckman replied defiantly. "Whatever it is, I'm not giving it to you."

"Come now, Diane." Bryce said. "Everybody talks –you know that. As for what I want, my employers have heard rumors that you've restarted the Intersect project. They want to know if that's true and if it is, all the information you have on it. Especially the location of the upload facility. You see, they want to create their own. Then, they're going to upload it to me and I'm going to make the CIA pay for how they treated me."

"I don't have any idea what you're talking about." Beckman responded, all the time cursing whatever security leak had allowed Fulcrum to get those rumors.

"Ooh, a challenge." Bryce said, smirking even more. "You REMFs are always going on and on to field agents about dying before giving anything up – I've always wanted to see if any of you would actually hold up to the same standards you've held us to."

End Flashback

They had come several hours later, the interrogation team that was apparently assigned to her. And she had very quickly realized that she was in real trouble. They were utilizing every tactic in the book, using physical violence and sleep deprivation combined with sodium penathol and a polygraph. Having been trained as an agent when she was younger, Beckman of course was familiar with the methods of interrogation and how to resist them. But she also knew that at the end of the day everyone broke. Whether or not the broken prisoner gave the interrogator accurate information or what the interrogator wanted to hear was largely determined by the balance of physical violence and other methods used. Too much physical violence often led to the later result. But although the interrogation had only been on-going for a short time, she could tell this team was very experienced. Which meant it would be only a matter of time. Her only hope was that her people would find her before it came to that.

"I have to say Diane, you surprised me." Bryce said, stepping forward from the corner where he had been watching. "I was sure you'd crack faster than an egg. Maybe you aren't such as bureaucratic dinosaur after all." Beckman spit blood on the ground.

"Best time I've had...in years." She wheezed, displaying more bravado than she felt. "Though your men...hit like a bunch...of five year old girls. A moment later she winced again as Bryce backhanded her across the face.

"Don't get cocky, General." Bryce said. "You will break. One way or another."

Nine hours later

Same location

"Report, Agent Larkin." The Fulcrum Director ordered over the secure video link.

"The General is proving more intrepid than we thought." Bryce replied. "She'll break eventually."

"And how long will that take?" The Director asked. "We need that information. All our plans depend on it."

"Unknown." Bryce said. "More than likely it will be another day or so before she'll answer basic questions. More detailed questions will probably take longer."

"Anyway to speed this up?" The Director asked.

"We're doing everything we can -" Bryce started to say, stopping as a faint memory came to the surface.

"What is it, Larkin? You've obviously thought of something." The Director said.

"There was a rumor going around CIA about the General and the instructor of Seduction at the Farm, Roan Montgomery. I don't know for sure if it's true, but it was pretty prevalent. And the details of the rumor were the same no matter who told it." Bryce said. "Maybe we can use him as leverage."

The Director smiled. "An excellent idea. Though with all of DC on alert it will be tough getting to him like we did Beckman. This is going to take some finesse and subtlety." The Director said. "I know just the agent to send."

Team Intersect Headquarters

AKA Castle

MCB Quantico

Quantico, VA

Class IV Secure Conference Room

August 18, 2006

1700 hours

"Nothing!" Chuck shouted, slamming the laptop closed in frustration. "How the Hell could there be no trace of them?" The team had managed to track Larkin's team to Pittsburgh but after that the trail had gone cold.

"It would appear that either Larkin is more proficient at this than we thought or he had help." Price said.

"We have to be missing something." Forrest said. "How long do you think Beckman will last?"

"Depends on what techniques they're using." Carina said. "Most agents can go 3-5 days without answering anything. Getting specific and truthful information usually takes longer. Though if they're using multiple techniques at once, it could be less."

"Beckman's tougher than she looks." Casey said. "They might get confirmation that the Intersect project is restarted but there's no way that she'll give up who is on the team or where we're based."

"Good thing she never married." O'Connor said, joining the conversation. She and Lt. Parker had walked into the room several moments earlier. "After all, that would be one big piece of leverage-"

"Sonofabitch!" Casey and Sarah exclaimed almost simultaneously. The rest of the team looked at them in confusion.

"Beckman does have someone."" Sarah said.

"There's nothing in the Intersect." Chuck said.

"Yeah, well, that's not surprising." Harper said. "I've suspected for some time that Beckman was holding back information; I thought she was keeping enough tidbits back to try and pull some bureaucratic Kung Fu to try and get more control over the program. If she did that, it stands to reason that she would also keep out information that might be used against her."

"But how do they know?" Chuck said.

"I don't for sure." Sarah said. "But there was a rumor going around the CIA about her and Roan Montgomery, the seduction instructor at the Farm. And as one of Graham's enforcers, Graham was a little less reserved around me. I overheard him a couple of times talking. Nothing too specific, but enough to make me think their might be more to the stories than just rumors."

"I was Beckman's protegee at one time." Casey said softly. "So I was around her more than most. Needless to say I saw and heard things."

"You were Beckman's protegee?" Sarah asked. "What happened?"

"Let's just say her and I had a slight disagreement about what constituted a lawful order." Casey said. It was clear from his tone of voice that he didn't want to talk about it.

"Ok people. Enough gossiping." Harper said. "If there's even a chance that it's true, then we need to get him into protective custody."

"Or we could use him as bait." Carina said.

"Absolutely not." Harper said. "That's not how we do things here, Miller. Get over to Montgomery's residence, and bring him back here. We'll set up surveillance and if Fulcrum goes near his home, we'll grab them." Chuck glanced at his watch.

"At this time of day, it's going to take 45 minutes to get there by car." Chuck said. "I suppose we could take a chopper."

"No, it would attract too much attention." Harper said, then turned to Pearce. "Tap into any security and traffic cameras in the area, and task a drone to maintain surveillance."

En Route to Roan Montgomery's Home

20 minutes later

Team Intersect was racing towards Roan Montgomery's residence outside of Fredericksburg, Virginia in four custom SUVs.

"What's our ETA?" Casey asked Jack, who was driving.

"Another 20 minutes." Jack responded. "Any word from our eye-in-the-sky?"

"Negative." Lacey Pearce said over the commlink. "No sign of-SHIT! I've got eyes on five subjects exiting the apartment building, one of them clearly against their will. Zooming in for facial recognition." Seconds rolled by. "It's Montgomery. He's being put into an SUV. Kidnappers are getting in as well; three men, one woman."

"Dammit!" Casey said.

"Pearce, can you send the images to my PDA?" Chuck, riding in another SUV asked.

"Coming at you." she responded. A minute later the images came through on Chuck's PDA.

"Recognize any of them?" Sarah asked from the driver's seat.

"No. Nothing in the Intersect on the three males. Let me check out the picture of the woman." Chuck replied, tapping the screen. "Her image is a little blurry. Trying to clean it up to get a better-" Chuck suddenly stopped talking. Looking over at him, Sarah was surprised to see a look of shock on his face.

"What is it Chuck?" she asked. "Do you know who she is?" Chuck shook himself out of stupor and turned to Sarah.

"You could say that." he replied. "You remember the girl that Bryce stole from me in college? This is her. Jill Roberts."