Thank you, as ever, to Poa for her editing. Thanks, also, to everyone who has been faithfully following this monstrosity, and especially those who were kind enough to leave reviews.

CHUCK VERSUS THE BUY MORE BOMBER

Chapter 19

Once More Unto the Breach, Dear Friends

Chuck stared, wide-eyed, at the three dark figures leveling sub-machine guns at him. They were dressed all in black, with close-fitting helmets, shooting glasses, tac vests, knee pads, combat boots and very scary looking Heckler & Koch MP5A2 submachine guns (which Chuck recognized from one of his previous flashes). Yet all Chuck could think was, 'Hey! Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six!'

"Drop the weapon!" the man in the center shouted.

Chuck furrowed his brows and looked at him. The three advanced closer, keeping their weapons trained on Chuck. "I said, drop the weapon," the man yelled again, slightly louder.

Chuck looked at him, then up at the gun in his hand, then back at the man. "Oh," he cried. "Oh! You mean me. This... this weapon." He slowly lowered his hands and dropped the weapon to the floor. "But I'm not... This isn't..."

One of the three 'Rainbow Team' members (as Chuck was thinking of them) lowered his weapon, moved cautiously around behind him, and shoved him roughly to the ground. "Stay down," he commanded.

"Hey. Hey!" Chuck shouted. "It's not what it... I'm not... I'm one of the good guys!"

Chuck felt a knee pressing into the middle of his back as the man grabbed his wrists and cable-tied them together. "Ow!" Chuck yelled as the man cinched the restraints tightly around his injured hands. He could hear footsteps as the rest of the tactical team spread out throughout the store. After a moment, he heard the man in front of him say into his radio, "We're clear."

Fighting down his panic, Chuck took a deep breath, then another. He closed his eyes, focused, and when he opened them again he spoke in a clear, steady tone. "I'm Special Agent Charles Carmichael, FBI. These two are members of Red Jihad and that big box at the end of the aisle is probably a bomb, so I suggest you let me up and call the bomb squad." He struggled to lift his head and look at the Rainbow guy in front of him. "And Abdul al Fayed, the mastermind of this operation, is escaping as we speak. So I suggest you get off of me and start looking for him," he continued.

"Let him up." The vaguely feminine voice was raspy, and familiar.

The pressure of the knee in his back eased, and he was hauled roughly to his feet. In front of him, a cigarette dangling from her lips, was Captain Barbara Anders, the LAPD officer heading up the Buy More Bomber investigation. She was still in a cheap suit that looked like she had slept in it, but the dark roots of her short bleach-blonde hair had been touched up.

Captain Anders reached up, took a long drag from her cigarette, and slowly blew it out. "Agent Carmichael," she said. "Fancy meeting you here." She made a show of looking around. "Where's Agent Casey?"

"Agent Walker was injured. He's taking her to get medical attention," he said. As soon as the words crossed his lips, the implication of what he had just said came flooding over him. Sarah had been shot! She was bleeding! He had no idea whether she was okay or if the wound was serious. He felt his knees grow weak and he had to fight to stay upright.

He struggled against his restraints and glared at Anders. She looked past him and nodded. Chuck felt something cold and hard slip between his hands and slice through the restraints. Rubbing his sore wrists, he looked past Anders to the large box sitting at the head of the aisle.

"Um, since that's probably a bomb, do you think we could get out of here?" he asked.

Anders looked over at the head of the Rainbow Team (which Chuck now recognized as an LAPD SWAT team). "Bomb squad's on the way," the man said.

"Clear it out," Anders said.

A SWAT member - no doubt the one who had forced him to the ground - stepped up from behind to stand next to Chuck. Two others grabbed the inert forms of Hassan and Ahmad and then the entire team, with Chuck in tow, hustled out of the store.

"The terrorists are using a GB-43 industrial detonator," Chuck said to Anders as she led him toward a SWAT van parked a discrete distance from the front of the store. "Radio-controlled. Do you have an RF jammer?"

"The bomb squad will have one," she said. "They'll be here in..." She looked over at the SWAT team leader.

"ETA eighteen minutes," he said.

"But al Fayed got away," Chuck protested. "He could be right here, ready to detonate the bomb."

"Nothing I can do," Anders said. "We have to wait for the bomb squad. I don't exactly carry an RF jammer in my pants pocket."

Chuck looked away from Anders and panned across the store. His stomach did a flip flop. Casey and Sarah were in the Castle, under the Buy More. If the bomb went off...

"I can get us one," Chuck said suddenly. He pulled away from the startled SWAT member at his elbow and ran toward the store.

"Stop!" Anders shouted. One of the tactical team started after him, but a shout from Anders brought him up short.

Chuck ran into the store, his mind racing. That guy he had met down in Miami, Michael Westen*, could no doubt assemble an RF jammer out of two cell phones, a coffee can and some duct tape, but Chuck knew he was no Michael Westen. He had one chance.

He ran through the store, past the large cardboard box that he expected to go 'boom' at any moment, and into the employee breakroom. Ignoring the pain in his hands, he tore open the lockers to reveal the secret stairway down into the Castle.

He started down the stairs, stopped, and went back up and shut the door. He didn't know how much protection it would give against a blast, but he figured it was better than nothing. Then he was off down the stairs two at a time. He hit the bottom with a loud 'thud', grabbed the bottom of the handrail to allow his momentum to spin him around the corner, and ran full speed toward the main room and the Castle computer.

Reaching the console, he pushed the chair out of the way and hunched over the keyboard, frantically typing in commands.

From one of the side rooms, Casey emerged, gun at the ready, trying to identify the source of the commotion.

"Bartowski! What the hell are you doing?" he bellowed.

"Hyngum!" Chuck said. He didn't bother to turn around, he just held up a finger to silence Casey before typing furiously again on the keyboard.

He finished entering the required commands, then let out a huge sigh, turned and slumped against the console.

"What the hell did you do, Bartowski?" Casey asked.

"The police didn't have an RF jammer, so I activated Castle's jammer and increased the field to cover the Buy More. That way al Fayed can't use the GB-43 to detonate the bomb."

"I already did that," came a weary voice from behind Casey. Sarah lurched into view from behind Casey, her shirt torn away and a large bandage covering her shoulder.

"Sarah!" Chuck cried. He ran to her, grabbed her, and pulled her to him.

"Chuck, that hurts," Sarah slurred.

"Oh! Oh God, I'm sorry," Chuck apologized, pulling away. "I'm so sorry. Are you okay?"

"Hell no, she's not okay," Casey said. "She's got a bullet in her shoulder. We need to get her to the hospital. I can't get it out here."

"Casey gets squeamish doing surgery," Sarah slurred as she slumped against Chuck. Her eyes were half-closed and she was struggling to stay awake.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Chuck asked frantically. "Let's get her to the hospital!"

"I just finished bandaging the wound, Moron," Casey said.

"Who's watching the terrorists?" Sarah asked, stumbling over the words.

"Casey's girlfriend, Captain Anders, is upstairs with what I think is all of the Rainbow Six team. She pulled Ahmad and Hassan out of the building and has them in custody," Chuck said.

"And you ran back into the store so you could lead the entire LAPD to our secret base," Casey spat. "Nice going, numbskull. Perhaps the concept of 'secret base' is a little too complex for you?"

"Casey..." Sarah said. She turned to Chuck. "Chuck, you go back out and handle Anders. Casey will get me to the CIA ward at County General."

"But... I want to take you," Chuck protested.

"Listen, knucklehead..." Casey started.

"Chuck," Sarah interrupted. "You went in the store. If you don't come back out, Anders is going to get suspicious. We can't blow our cover. You can meet me at the hospital later."

Chuck started to protest, but Sarah paled and started to slip down the doorframe she had propped herself up against.

"Go!" Casey barked.

Reluctantly, Chuck headed back toward the stairs to the Buy More. He stopped and cast a worried glance at Sarah. "Hang on, Sarah," he said. "I'll be right there." Then he turned and sprinted toward the stairs.

"So let me get this straight," Casey said, lifting Sarah into his arms and carrying her up the stairs to the Orange Orange. "The heroic imbecile clocked me so he could run into a burning building, he put himself in the line of fire to tackle a Red Jihad agent, and now he runs into the Buy More knowing full well that a bomb could explode at any moment."

"That's our Chuck," Sarah said, her head lolling against Casey's shoulder.

***

* Author's Note: See my story Chuck Versus the Burn Notice.