Chuck Versus the Lost Years

by Angus MacNab

What happened after the Goodbye? Chuck and Sarah find that getting Sarah's memories back might be much more difficult and dangerous than just remembering them. A whole new adventure and romance revolving around an Intersect run amok.

14. Act 13 & 14

A/N Posted 5/4/13 -

When I edited this story for eBook formats I decided to break this act and the next into two separate chapters. Unfortunately, it's not easy to do that here and doing so causes all sorts of problems that make it better just left alone. So a chapter break now occurs about midway through this act.

Thanks to Mrs. Mac for proofing and somedeepmystery for a quick read through. We were all kind of busy with real life at the time I wrote this so beta on was minimal, and it showed some. But I was anxious to move the story for my readers so I posted it.

I don't own Chuck

---

Chuck Versus the Lost Years

Act 13 - Orion Lives

- I -

They moved silently down the dark concrete lined passage toward the intersection of the three tunnels. The blinking light at the end had gone out. Chuck glanced down at his phone, noting the positions of their opposition, then crept to the corner with his fist up, signaling for Sarah and Nikki to hold. As he lowered his night vision goggles around his neck and stuck a small fiber optic camera out around the corner, he caught some movement in the corner of his eye. Looking over he spied Cole, Carina, and Zondra across the tunnel at the corner of the entrance to the connecting tunnel, with their goggles on, watching him intently. After a brief look at his subdued phone display, he gave them a thumbs-up and a hand signal, and they stalked silently over behind him in a low crouch.

"Since when did you start wearing your hat backwards?" Carina whispered into his ear.

He grinned at her, motioning them all back down the tunnel, and brought his mouth close to her ear as they started to move, "It's my new Jack O'Neill look, you like?"

Carina froze, pushing her NV goggles up on her forehead as she looked him in the eye, "Jack who? And who the hell is Orion?"

"Stargate? Col. Jack O'Neill? He's even your type... oh, never mind, you had to be there," he said when her blank expression didn't change. "Orion is my dad."

"What?" Carina breathed, surprise now drawn on her face, "I thought your dad was dead?"

"So did I."

"So a ghost is helping us?"

"It would appear so," Sarah whispered as the group met and huddled in the dark tunnel.

"For a ghost he seems to be doing a good job so far," Cole Barker observed. "What's the plan, Chuck?"

"The plan right now is that we stay flexible. Those guards are still standing in front of that six-by-six truck that's blocking the tunnel. We can use the truck for cover." Chuck took Sarah's hand, and their eyes met for a second, followed by a mutual nod.

"Follow our lead," Sarah whispered, before she and her husband scuttled down the tunnel hand-in-hand.

"What the hell was that?" asked Carina and Zondra almost simultaneously.

"Watch and learn ladies, and be ready to back them up," Nikki breathed with a thin smile, "Let's go."

The four agents watched the two Intersects creep silently around the corner to the back of the one and a half ton six-by-six truck that was blocking most of the tunnel. It was one of those military style vehicles with a canvas covering over the cargo box. Chuck hoisted his lanky frame with surprising silence onto the canvas top and reached down to pull Sarah up with him in one fluid motion.

Sarah then signaled the other agents forward before she and Chuck started to crawl toward the front of the truck. The dimly lit tunnel looked clear ahead of them, and three golf carts were parked just beyond the six standing Fulcrum agents as they talked about the weather, of all things, in the deep concrete tunnel. Three of them were still positioned perfectly.

Sharing quick affirming nods again along with a serious look that wordlessly said "Let's do this", Chuck and Sarah then bound to their feet in a crouch and leaped onto the hood of the truck with their hands clasped. Springing off the metal hood, they flew through the air in a slow forward flip, legs extended.

Their feet met the faces of two of the startled enemy agents on the way down, and their clasped hands clotheslined the third one standing in the middle, whipping him to the concrete floor head first as the husband and wife agents landed nimbly and almost silently in a crouch. Their weapons were already coming to bear on the three agents who were still standing, and staring at them dumbstruck. The three Fulcrum operatives fell from three rapid tranq shots from each agent's gun. Then the two Intersects spun and tranqed the other three agents already sprawled on the floor at their feet.

When their teammates scrambled around the truck and slid to a halt, with their weapons up, they stared at the bodies on the concrete floor. The only one who didn't show any surprise was Nikki. Every one of the enemy agents had two tranq darts in his neck. "What the hell? Why did you bring us along to this shindig again?" Carina asked cynically. She looked up to see Sarah perched on the side of one of the golf carts, her arms braced on the roof, peering down the tunnel with a night vision monocular.

Chuck looked back at the statuesque auburn haired agent a little sheepishly. "You know why we asked you, Carina. We have to rescue three people we care about who may be held anywhere in here. We needed people we could trust to help. There's no way for Sarah and me to get them all out on our own."

Sarah turned to them with a thin smile on her face, "Besides, you wouldn't have taken no for an answer if we'd asked you to stay out of it anyway."

"Yeah, well, you've got that right, Blondie," Carina said with a snort, "After what you two have been through there was no damn way I was going to stay behind. It was a first for me being in your wedding. I don't want to set another precedent so soon by being in your funeral."

"We are all walking out of this one," Sarah said, flatly. "Let's stash these guards in the back of this truck. It doesn't look like we've alerted anyone," she said, cocking her thumb over her shoulder down the tunnel.

Once the unconscious guards were hidden in the truck's cargo box, the six agents huddled at the back of the vehicle out of sight. "Any opposition down there, Sarah?" asked Cole, briefly checking his suppressed Walther PPQ with a short tug on the slide, ensuring out of habit that a round was in battery and the pistol was ready.

"Three guards by the blast door. Shouldn't be too hard to take them out silently. We'll use those carts and drive right up to them." Sarah looked pointedly at her husband, and she drew her own silenced weapon from her low-slung tactical holster on her hip and repeated the same action as Cole. It was an STI .45 caliber automatic just like the two that Nikki was carrying in a similar double-rig. "Weapons check. From here on out we're going in with deadly force, unless there's a clear tactical advantage to using tranqs."

Sarah's eyes met Chuck's again after she holstered her new pistol, and she studied the reaction to her words on his face. She didn't want to have to tell him this, and said it silently, with a look and a touch. He nodded, his mouth drawn into a tight grim line, "It's Ellie," was all he said, and she nodded. "Right. We'll pair off and use these carts," Chuck said, taking a deep breath as his eyes traveled across those of his team. "Sarah and me, Nikki and Cole, Zondra and Carina. We'll go down the tunnel in a trailing line..."

- II -

"How is the good Doctor's husband doing?" Edgar Sloan said with a brief look at Allen Preston standing next to him. They were in an elevator descending to the main labs and Intersect download room over two hundred feet below ground.

"He'll make it. He's a remarkably fit man, very resilient, very intelligent, gifted hands as a surgeon. He'd probably make a terrific programmed control agent."

"That's my plan for him," Sloan replied, turning stoically back toward the door and watching the depth counter above it count up in meters. "First we'll use him as leverage once he's fit enough to take to the lab, then once he's helped us get what we want from his wife, we'll make her program him. I'm sure she'll accept that alternative over seeing him killed. Then we'll proceed with the plan to Intersect her and the rest of the technical staff; ensure their loyalty to the cause."

Preston glanced at his boss and smiled sardonically, "As long as you know where to draw the line, Edgar. I have no desire to have that thing in my head. I saw what it did to Sarah Walker." He shook his head. "No, not the least bit interested in that, no matter what benefits the white coats say it might have."

The elevator car came to an abrupt halt with a rebounding bump, the number 65 lit in red on the display, and the door slid open. Edgar waved casually to the men at the guard station across from them and turned left toward the large security door at the end of the hallway. Two large Fulcrum operatives in the standard green tactical uniforms and ballistic vests were waiting for them there.

Edgar gave the two dangerous looking operatives a sideways glance. "I already know I have your complete loyalty, Allen. Why do I need to push the issue when I already have so many other willing and capable volunteers?" he said with a subtle smirk, as he punched in the long and complex code into the keypad next to the door.

- III -

"So, both Chuck and Sarah are Intersects now." Cole Barker said it like it was an all too obvious fact.

"How much do you know, Agent Barker?" Nikki Lawson asked with a sidelong glance while she drove the small electric cart they were in down the dimly lit concrete lined tunnel, directly behind Chuck and Sarah Bartowski.

"I'm completely read in; one of four at SIS. I was the first at MI6 to know about Chuck, rather by accident. I've known about him for years, but I only heard about this new version a few days ago."

"Do you know about the project plans, then?"

"Most definitely, Ms. Lawson. I'm helping to select candidates from SIS, and I am one myself. I also know about your involvement in the program."

"Interesting."

Cole looked over at her and smiled playfully, "Yes, isn't it," he said, raising his pistol as Nikki swerved the golf cart abruptly to the left.

In front of them Sarah Bartowski also raised her suppressed handgun as she and Chuck drove down the middle of the tunnel. The last cart in the line, with Carina and Zondra in it, swerved to the right as the electric vehicles formed a tight chevron approaching the huge blast door near the end of the long underground passage. The three guards fell in a hail of bullets from the operatives riding in the passenger seats, and when the electric carts came to a screeching halt on the smooth concrete the entire team jumped from them, weapons up and at the ready.

No sooner had Sarah confirmed her lethal shots on her assigned target near the right side of the giant steel door, then started to sweep her pistol left, she heard the metallic clack of six very rapid suppressed shots from her left as Chuck slid into view on one knee in her peripheral vision. She watched aghast as three previously unseen guards near a door in an alcove about twenty yards from them toppled, two with guns trained on her and Zondra.

Sarah spun, and stared incredulously at her husband and Nikki Lawson, who was standing at his shoulder with her weapon ready, but unfired. "Jesus, Boss," Nikki breathed with surprise, before she ran forward to check the downed Fulcrum operatives.

For what seemed like an eternity, Sarah stood frozen as she watched the lazy wisp of smoke rise from the suppressor on Chuck's handgun, until her eyes fell directly on his, and his gaze stayed glued to the three fallen guards while Nikki checked and disarmed them. When Nikki waved Cole over to help her move the very dead guards, Chuck's eyes finally met those of his wife as she stood fixed like a statue only a few feet from him. "Chuck," she said, her voice laced with agony, "Oh, Chuck...honey..."

"They had you in their sights, Sarah, I had to. I didn't have a choice."

"I know. Thank you for having my back...again," she said, with a sorrowful expression; one that was mixed with the fire of a surprising sense of pride in her eyes. He always had her back, he always made the hard decisions, always did what he had to do, and she knew it; now more than ever.

"It wasn't that hard, Sarah. I know you probably could have helped, but a little piece of you dies every time you do this. I have to share that burden. I can't let you bear it by yourself anymore."

Sarah watched, as he rose deliberately, changed the magazine, and holstered his weapon in his hip holster. She could feel eyes upon her, and looked over her shoulder to see Carina and Zondra watching the two of them quietly, but very obviously ready to say something supportive or even snarky if the moment took a wrong turn. A small grateful smile graced her face as she looked at her two former CAT squad partners.

They had her back too, and they both knew how hard it really was for Chuck to do what he'd just done. She closed the distance to her husband remembering clearly what she had told him on the glider in the backyard. She didn't want to ever see him do this, but the reason he gave her made her heart soar. He was trying to protect her very soul, at the expense of his own. Sarah took him in her arms and hugged him tightly, but briefly. "Thank you, Chuck, I'll do everything I can to help you bear yours. We'll get through this together."

With the exchange of an understanding melancholy smile, they turned and joined their teammates now grouped around the large heavy retractable door leading into the base. Nikki and Cole were in the process of bypassing the door controls when the door slid open. "I didn't do that," Nikki whispered, staring at her small tablet.

That's because I did, said the green message on her suddenly black screen. It scrolled up revealing another message,

Corridor is clear to stairwell.
Do NOT use the elevator.
I can't access the network on
the lower levels yet.

"Boss, we need to have a talk about your Dad," Nikki said cryptically, "Do you really think he's still..." She trailed off, not wanting to be the vocal naysayer.

"Well, he's right, we can't use the elevator, that's for sure," answered Sarah, avoiding eye contact with the other operatives as she flashed, "We have to go down to the bottom level and there's a guard station directly across from the elevator armored with bullet-proof glass."

Chuck nodded in agreement, "Sarah's right, we have to use the stairs. And that could be my Dad. There could be an explanation for it. His body was never recovered from the Ring."

You know what happened, son.
You know what they did to me.

"Damn, this is getting freakin' creepy," breathed Carina, looking at Nikki's tablet screen, "And how do you two know about this supposed guard station? It wasn't on the plans."

Chuck and Sarah exchanged a wary look. As circumstances had it, Carina and Zondra were the only two on the team who hadn't been completely read in why all of this was happening, and it wasn't sitting very well with either of the two Intersects. Carina knew the most, but in reality only a little. Chuck gave his uber security conscious wife a questioning, almost pleading glance, and she nodded reluctantly back. "That's because we've seen another more updated database," Sarah said, meeting her two former CAT squad teammate's unwavering gaze, "A database in our heads."

There was a brief moment of stunned silence as all six team members exchanged brief penetrating glimpses into one another's eyes. "You have got to be kidding me. You're telling me the Intersect is real?" Zondra said, making quick and disbelieving eye contact with Carina, "No way."

"Yes, way," said Chuck with a serious demeanor, that didn't match the less than serious way he'd said it.

"The U.S. intelligence network is indeed a sieve," chuckled Cole Barker, "Don't you blokes know how to keep compartmentalized information...compartmentalized?"

"Not where the intelligence rumor mill is concerned. The Intersect is a popular myth within the community." Chuck gave the man he considered a friend and mentor a friendly slap on the shoulder, "Most don't believe it prima facie, but I'm sure they'd all die before they shared even a rumor like that with the wrong people."

"I certainly hope so, otherwise we're all buggered."

"So, let me get this straight," Carina intoned, with a subtle shake of the head, "You two lovebirds are both Intersected? Wow, that almost sounds dirty, doesn't it? Sure does explain a lot, though," she added with a big wink.

Nikki snickered under her breath, "You don't know the half of it," she said, almost inaudibly, getting a raised eyebrow and a grin from the two CATS. Surprisingly, she looked up to see Chuck and Sarah beaming at her like they knew she was in for it, and she took a gulping breath.

"Listen, we don't have time to be discussing the finer points of being Intersected here," Sarah hissed with a mock scowl, "Now you know, and you should have known all of it before we started this, but frankly, anyone who does know about this has a chance of being pulled into the program. So, you've been warned. It seems to be the nature of the beast. Do you understand now? This is what is at stake. Chuck's sister helped to develop the version we have. That's how important this is. On top of being our sister, how important she is."

"Yeah, Blondie, we understand," Carina said, sharing a wide-eyed look and a nod with Zondra.

"We're in, partner. Whatever you need us to do," Zondra agreed.

"Alright then, we've wasted enough time here, so let's move on."

Carina extended her arm down through the open doorway and toward the hall beyond, "Obviously, you can take the point," she said to her blonde partner with a grin.

Giving her friend a 'Well, duh' look, Sarah then moved through the doorway in a crouch with Chuck on her shoulder.

Team Bartowski shuffled down the hallway, passing the elevator in a supportive column, covering multiple fields of fire with Nikki and Cole at the back watching the rear. They moved silently and quickly toward a heavy metal door at the end of the hall. And when they were just about there, one of the side doors right in front of them opened. They all froze for a split second as Fulcrum operatives began to file out. The enemy operatives had even more startled looks on their faces when they faced off with the armed team dressed in identical clothing.

Chuck and Sarah sprang into motion, both rising quickly with palm strikes, and then a swift flurry of unified hands, elbows, knees, and feet, in very close quarters with the four enemy agents who'd made it out the door. The Fulcrum agents were quickly dispatched in a pile on the concrete floor and the two Intersects dove through the open doorway to the sound of a tumult of suppressed gunshots that spilled back into the corridor.

Finishing the four incapacitated Fulcrum agents laying tangled at their feet with tranq shots, Carina and Zondra then ran toward the gunfire through the open door. They stood, looking down the sights of their guns in complete shock, staring at, the very least a dozen armed Fulcrum operatives lying arrayed around the room. Chuck and Sarah, were crouched back-to-back in the center of it, apparently unscathed. The Intersects both exclaimed "Clear," almost simultaneously and turned their gaze to Sarah's two former bridesmaids.

"Damn, are you okay?" Zondra asked, upon seeing the intensely focused look in the couple's eyes, and then pursing her lips, when Sarah give her a slow nod, her mouth drawn in a tight frown.

"What a mess," Carina muttered, surveying the carnage. Even she was a little taken aback.

"Come on girls, let's get these bodies into one of those rooms and out of sight," Sarah quietly commanded, pointing with the barrel of her pistol to a doorway with a couple of Fulcrum agents piled in it. She watched as Chuck closed his eyes and sightlessly reloaded his pistol, then she placed her hand on his cheek.

When his eyes suddenly reopened, they locked on hers, and for a second he placed his hand over hers before reaching down to drag one of the lifeless enemy operatives across the room. She'd seen it before, had been there herself, multiple times. He was attempting to lock it down, to keep his emotions in check. So far he was holding it together, and she was doing everything she could to help him, but she wondered how long he would hold out.

"I'm guessing Orion doesn't have coverage everywhere in this facility. Looks like guard's quarters," Cole commented when he and Nikki dragged the four, more fortunate Fulcrum operatives into the room from the hallway, and then Nikki stood watch by the door as they cleared the room.

"No, there aren't cameras or detectors in every room," Chuck said quietly, with a frighteningly emotionless timber to his voice. "This room was also flagged as empty by the Intersect. Bad intel."

"Or misinformation." Cole looked up at him catching his eye "You did what you had to do, Chuck."

"I know, but this is not who I am," was Chuck's flat response.

"Most agents never have to do this, but today it's who you need to be, my friend."

With a swift kick, Cole broke the handle off the door they'd stashed the bodies behind, and then cuffed Chuck in the shoulder as he went by him before rejoining Nikki as they moved back into the hallway. When Sarah exited last from the room, she shut off the lights, and then broke off the switch with the butt of her handgun. Pulling the locked door closed, she exchanged an understanding but wary look with her husband, taking his hand as they made their way to the door leading to the stairwell.

"Your sister, Chuck. Remember, this is for your sister," she whispered to him as they settled by the door. He gave her a curt nod as he reached into his vest pocket and removed his vibrating phone.

Stairwell is clear to lower level.

I'm sorry, son.

The strike clacked open with a buzz and Nikki opened the door. They looked down an open framework of metal stairs, into a deep, square concrete shaft. "We'll take point to the bottom," she said looking at Sarah over her shoulder, "It's our turn to shoulder some of this."

With a subtle nod from Sarah, they all moved down the stairs moving as silently as possible on rusted expanded metal steps that were covered in multiple layers of paint. Nikki stopped every flight to listen for a moment, the only sound noticeable being the controlled breathing of the six agents in the deep, concrete shaft the staircase descended into.

After descending about five flights, as they were pausing to listen, Chuck muttered, "Where is a Dr. Jibb machine when you need one?"

Three agents looked at him like he'd lost it, and when Sarah and Nikki both choked back a laugh, Carina whispered rapid-fire, "Dr. Jibb? What the hell is so funny about that?"

"It was a soda pop machine that just happened to be an elevator. You'll have to read the mission report to believe it," Sarah said with a self-contained grin. At least he's still holding onto his sense of humor, Sarah thought as they continued down the stairs. They descended ten flights before they reached a small alcove at the bottom.

"There were five flights above us when we started," Chuck whispered when they huddled by the door. "We're about two hundred feet down. The lab is supposed to be that way." He pointed to the left as they faced the door.

"We still have to get past that guard station," Sarah pointed out. "It's about forty feet down the hall on the right. Supposedly eight men in it. Any ideas?"

Chuck looked at his wife somberly. "Well, we have to do this silently, otherwise we're gibs."

"Gibs?" asked Carina, "Is this about soda pop again?"

"Not this time," Nikki snerked. "Obviously, you're not an action gamer. Giblets, body parts... as in blown to smithereens.

"Oh. Lovely imagery. I motion that we avoid becoming gibs."

"I second that motion," Zondra deadpanned. "Let's make the other guys gibs, okay?"

"I'll say aye to that," Chuck said with an almost Casey-like smile. "The updated schematic says the entrance is on the far side of the window, so we'll have to go under it to get to the door. And they've got at least a hundred mercs garrisoned on level three, two floors above the tunnel, and we definitely don't want them coming down here."

Sarah laid her hand on his arm. "Chuck, let me see your phone." He handed it to her, and she held it up in front of her. "Come on, Stephen, talk to us. Tell me you've got those cameras in the corridor looped. We don't want to do this the hard way." She looked back at Chuck. "If we had to, do you think we could contact Morgan from down here?"

"Doubtful. Not if even my Dad is having trouble."

Almost a minute passed, and Sarah was beginning to resign herself to having to take the surveillance cameras down with her silenced weapon or with one of the EMP devices she and Chuck were carrying. "Come on..." she repeated impatiently. Then the green text started to scroll.

This section of the base is
on a secure isolated node. I
had to hack in through the
security feed to the upper
levels.

Stand by.

"Yes. He's in," Sarah breathed in relief, moving closer to Chuck to share the display.

"Are we sure that's him?" Zondra skeptically asked. "I don't want to be the one to say it, but this is a perfect way to lead us right into a trap."

Chuck and Sarah exchanged another one of those quick looks when he laid his hand on her leg as they crouched in the dimly lit stairway alcove. "We think it's him,' he said with conviction. "He's exhibiting knowledge and behavior that fits his profile to a tee. He's used a term of endearment that very few know...very few. And he told us how he happens to be alive."

"I concur, Dr. Kwambe's resurrection technology. And I can't believe Fulcrum could have hacked our secure phone network, especially from over their security or WiFi network. We'd have been captured long before this if they did. Only one man could have done this."

The two Intersects and Nikki looked at Cole Barker with silent astonishment.

"I told you your intelligence networks were a sieve. We also know what happened at that meeting in Los Angeles, and SIS has a dossier on Stephen Bartowski that's three centimeters thick," the MI6 man said with a roguish smile.

Here's proof.

Updating your devices with
new information I just hacked
from their servers about the
design of this base. Several
changes since I gave Ellie the
latest intel on this place for
your Intersects.

"What!?" Chuck exclaimed, his voice shooting up a couple of octaves.

"Shhh, not so loud," Sarah admonished, staring wide-eyed at her husband.

"But, do you know what that means? It means Ellie knew. She's been working with our Dad. I can't believe she's been keeping this from me. My own sister has been keeping secrets from me," he said with grumbling shock and dismay.

Sarah let out a short, low, and cynical laugh as she reached up and popped her husband in the forehead with the palm of her hand, grinning at him, "Hello, earth to Chuck. Pot? Kettle?"

Ellie's known for a while
son. Need to know. We
couldn't risk telling you
or Sarah while you were
seeing a CIA psychiatrist
and having your Intersects
so closely monitored.

Cameras are now looped, but
I can't seem to access
motion or thermal sensors
yet. Give me another minute.

"Well, that makes sense," Sarah said with a squeeze of her nerd's hand. "And I don't think there's any doubt now that it's Stephen."

"Yeah, that's him alright, as paranoid as always," Chuck muttered with a sardonic one-sided smile.

Very funny, son. Not!

Your mom and Ms. Peterson
are helping me access some
data. One more minute.

Exactly one minute passed, to the second.

There. I now have control
of all sensors, but there are
gaps down here as well. No
coverage in several connecting
rooms. When you get to the
guard station door, I'll open it.

Be careful!

The strike clicked open on the door in front of them with a short buzz from the solenoid.

"I presume that's our cue to proceed," Cole wryly observed.

Nikki pushed the door open a crack and peered out. "Corridor's clear."

"Clear here, too," whispered Sarah, glancing at Chuck's phone.

"Remember, the bad guys are supposed to be gibs, not us," Carina whispered coarsely.

- IV -

The six operatives crawled one at a time under the large bullet-proof bay window jutting out into the corridor while their teammates covered every point of entry into the concrete walled hallway. Besides the elevator and guard post door, that was recessed into a small alcove on the far side of the window, there were three doors beyond the guard post near the end of the passage. A large automated and armored sliding door with a keypad appeared to be the entrance to the main lab and control rooms for the base. The two doors on opposing sides of the corridor were labs and server rooms, according to the updated plans Orion had uploaded to their phones and tablets, but unconnected to the main lab area.

The way that the windows to the guard post protruded into the corridor had created a tense moment when one of the guards inside had stepped up to the three pane window and looked down the hallway toward the lab doors. They all froze in a tight stack, huddled against the wall still a good distance away from the windows, and by some miracle the guard didn't see them in the dimly lit part of the passage they were in. As soon as the enemy agent turned back into the room, they'd shuffled, quickly as a group, to the short wall at the base of the nearest of the three windows.

Now, as they crawled under the window and congregated out of sight near the door, Chuck looked up at the camera in the hallway across from them and waved, knowing somewhere the father he had thought was long dead was watching over them. Sarah saw him and caught his eye with a small smile. They were close now, so close. The guards beyond this door were all that was between them and the lab. "Eight security personnel, just as we figured," she whispered into his ear, and pointed to the display on the phone, "This time we use tranqs, Chuck. We can't risk the sound of an errant bullet impact, we're too close."

Chuck nodded back, "Four of us then, we need two to cover the hall."

Chuck drew his tranq gun, holding it up for all to see right when Cole came around the base of the window bringing up the rear. It was hand signals from this point as he instructed Carina and Zondra to stack up on him and Sarah, and Nikki and Cole to cover the hallway. Just then the phone vibrated in Sarah's hand.

Company coming on the
elevator. Trying to override
and slow it down. Time to
get moving. Nod at me when
ready.

"Crap," Chuck said under his breath as Sarah held the phone up for Nikki and Cole to see and gestured emphatically at the elevator door. The two seasoned agents nodded curtly and readied themselves. After a brief glimpse of warning at Carina, Zondra, and his wife, Chuck fixed his eyes on the camera and nodded. No sooner had he turned back to the heavy steel door, it slid open with a heavy electric whir, and they jumped into the small room face-to-face with eight very startled Fulcrum agents. In less than two seconds it was over as the eight men toppled to the floor from multiple tranq dart hits.

"C'mon, quick, I've got an idea. Help me get these guys out of sight," Chuck loudly whispered in a rush of words as he started to drag one of the agents up below the window. "Sarah, ask Dad how much longer before the elevator gets here."

I heard. Eighteen seconds.

"Eighteen seconds, Chuck."

"Damn, that's pretty specific," Zondra observed with a grunt as she dragged one of the Fulcrum guards up below the window.

"That's my Dad for you. Nikki, Cole," Chuck growled as he and Sarah dragged another guard, "Get in here!"

The two agents backed quickly into the now crowded room, "Dad, the-" The door slid shut as Nikki and Cole cleared the threshold, "-door," he stuttered with a sudden smile, realizing his father knew exactly what he was up to. "Places everyone, you're now guards," he said hurriedly, pointing to several consoles around the sides of the room, "Sarah, with me."

They stepped up to the window and watched as the elevator door opened and two men in white lab coats and two more very large men in green tactical uniforms stepped from the elevator into the corridor. The two men in lab coats held up their ID badges on lanyards, and Chuck smiled, sheepishly waving with raised eyebrows at them as they strode forward. Then he very animatedly gestured toward the security door at the end of the hallway when they started to step closer to the windows.

"You're not being very convincing, Chuck," Sarah mumbled, from the corner of her mouth as she looked sternly at the two most threatening individuals outside the window, both of whom were looking back at them very curiously. She strode forward to a microphone on the console below the window. "You're all cleared into the lab," she said brusquely after keying the mic.

The two lab technicians gave her a perfunctory wave and moved toward the door, while the two Fulcrum operatives eyed her and Chuck suspiciously but followed the white-coated men.

"Dad, hold that elevator for us, we may need it. Cole, come watch those guys for us," Chuck said a little excitedly, starting to back away from the window and angle toward the door with Sarah close behind. "Sorry ladies, but I don't think those two behemoths were expecting to see so many women in here. Keep an eye on em', Cole. Give us the signal as soon as they key in the code for the door."

"I'm getting the evil eye from Mr. Big, Chuck," warned Cole, watching the group at the door through the side window, "One of the techs is keying the code now."

"Dad, the door, on Agent Barker's word."

"Almost done," Cole breathed. "Could be trouble, the two mercs are talking to each other and gesturing our way. Bloody hell, one of them is reaching for his radio. NOW, Chuck."

The door slid open, and Chuck and Sarah burst from the room tranq pistols up, with Cole and Nikki hot on their heels. "The techs, Nikki," Sarah exclaimed as she unleashed multiple shots on the two big mercs, now charging them like bulls.

The two surprised scientists stared at the advancing agents then spun back towards the door when it began to slide open with a heavy pneumatic hiss, only to fall across the entry with multiple red darts sticking from the back of their white lab coats. Chuck flashed as the huge agent Cole had called Mr. Big flung a meaty fist at his head. He bent back like a reed, catching the charging man's arm as he let the enemy agent's momentum carry him onto his back and he planted a foot in the man's gut and pushed off with the other on the floor.

The Fulcrum guard flew over him in a lazy outstretched flip, slammed into the wall, and fell with a heavy crunch onto the concrete. Chuck let his own momentum carry him back over into a reverse kip-up, and landed on his feet to see Sarah pummeling the other large agent's knees, gut, and head with ferocious combination of snap kicks, before landing a kick to the man's open groin. Then she delivered a powerful hammer blow to the doubled-over agents temple that literally drove the man to the floor with a loud smack.

Sarah spun around, fists up, bouncing on the balls of her feet, and shouted, "Chuck!" wide-eyed, looking behind him.

Chuck didn't even turn to look, and dove forward, rolling on his shoulder, as he felt the breeze like passing bus had driven by. The sound of two rapid large caliber suppressed shots closely followed, and what sounded like a car accident, when something hit the wall only a couple of feet from him. He sprang to his feet to see Mr. Big lying crumpled at his feet, with a formidable looking blade in his hand, and Nikki with her pistol up, smoke coming from the suppressor. The angle had been perilously close, and she looked at him grimly, her mouth drawn into a tight line, shaking her pistol angrily in her outstretched isosceles grip.

"Damn, that was way too close," Carina uttered as she started to breathe again.

"Jesus H. Christ, that son-of-a-bitch took a half dozen tranq shots and landed on his head, and he still kept coming," Zondra said rather casually. "I hope he's not the norm around here."

Sarah strode forward and grasped her husband's hand earnestly, looking him sternly in the eye. "Don't let that happen again, Chuck, unless you want to see me die of a heart attack." Not waiting for an answer, she turned quickly and surveyed the scene. "No time to clean this up properly, we have to press on."

"Come on, let's move it," Cole urged, standing on the threshold of the large, automated double-door. "I'm standing in a door beam, and I don't think this thing is going to stay open much longer without sounding an alarm."

The door slid closed behind them with an authoritative clack when Cole stepped out of the doorway into the large hallway they were now in. This part of the base looked new, almost sterile, without the rust stains on the concrete walls like the parts they'd already traveled through. Instead the walls were painted white with colored stripes at about chest height, most likely denoting paths to various parts of the facility. The ceiling was of the suspended commercial style with acoustic tiles and fluorescent lighting fixtures set in metal framework, instead of the pipes and conduits overhead.

"This is sure different," Nikki said quietly with her pistol up, pointed down the long corridor.

"It's in the Intersect," Sarah replied curiously, "This was once part of this place, but it's been updated, changed. Chuck, look at this." She pulled her husband closer showing him the facility layout on the phone his father had uploaded. "There's even a separate entrance now, on the opposite side of the labs and Intersect download room. That's an elevator."

"Huh. I think that used to be an escape slash ventilation shaft. It looks like it comes up beyond the base perimeter. There's a shallow gully on that side." He gazed at her with a grin. "Looks like we found a better way out of here than we originally planned."

"Yeah, this corridor leads around the outside of all the work areas. It's exposed, but we can get to most of the labs and the download room from it." Sarah pointed down the hallway in the opposite direction Nikki and Cole were covering. "This is the best way to get in unobserved. All the main lab entrances are on the opposite side."

"Agreed. We'll access the lab from here," he said, pointing at the diagram, "That'll put us in behind the main lab and download room."

"Well let's move it then, Boss," Nikki said dryly, without turning around, "I've got a bad feeling about this place."

"Heh." Chuck looked over at her and grinned, "You're hanging around Casey too much. He's starting to rub off on you. But you're right, let's get a move on before someone starts to discover all the bodies we've left lying around."

Sarah handed the phone back to Chuck, and he put it in his vest pocket as they hustled down the corridor.

- V -

"Dr. Bartowski, I hope you find the workspace and the help satisfactory," Edgar Sloan said with a penetrating gaze when he strode into the room wearing a very expensive looking, dark, European tailored business suit with a black shirt and a pink silk tie.

"It's Dr. Woodcomb now," Ellie acidly replied. "I take it you're the man who has been the source of all this grief?" Ellie stared at him from her seat at the lab workstation, the anger palpable in her eyes, her lower lip quivering barely perceptibly. "I want to see my husband."

"All in good time, doctor, all in good time," Sloan said coolly, rubbing his thumb across the fingernails of one hand before glancing sidelong at Allen Preston standing next to him. "I'll let you see your husband when you give me what I want; a bug-free Intersect made to my precise specifications."

Ellie glared at him in defiance, "I've seen enough of your specifications to know what you're after isn't bug-free. What you want are robots without free will."

Sloan looked up from his neatly trimmed fingernails at her with a wry smile. "You never did get to meet Ted Roark, did you? The man who tried to ruin your first wedding? What a magnificent bastard. He wanted an army of Intersect agents. Such a pathetic vision, no wonder he had to steal all your father's ideas. Even as nasty as he was, he didn't see the full potential of what could be achieved. How his army could have been truly invincible once their ability to question their orders was completely removed. So much potential, wasted."

Ellie followed Sloan's shifting gaze over her shoulder to a large monitor showing Manoosh Depak strapped to a chair in the center of a large white paneled room. "Now, Doctor, you will give me what I want, optimized for a clean final download, or I'll have my team try the latest beta on the good Dr. Depak in there. I'm sure he'll still be useful for a while after it's done, but how long is anyone's guess."

"You can threaten me all you want," Ellie said with defiant venom in her voice, "I already know they're more than just threats, that you're planning on doing this to us whether we cooperate, or not. So you might as well live with the fact that your agents are going to self-destruct in a few months. I'd rather suffer a similar fate than become your pawn."

Allen Preston fidgeted almost imperceptibly on his feet as Sloan wheeled to fix hard eyes on him. Then he turned the glare to Ellie, laying both his hands on the desk, leaning over it menacingly. On the monitor in front of her, just under Sloan's chin, the screen went black and green text appeared.

Stall, Eleanor.

Help is on the way.

Ellie almost blanched when she saw the message before it suddenly winked out as fast as it had appeared, going back to her work screen. If it hadn't been for the fact it wasn't the first time she's seen such a message, she would have probably given herself away.

"Doctor Woodcomb, you will help us, or I assure you, everyone you care about in your life, including your daughter, will be dead within a week."

Ellie swallowed thickly, as she stared at the obvious sociopath with large eyes. "If you want my help, I have to see my husband. Now. I need to know he's alive. Where is he?"

Sloan shook his head slowly, with smugness on his face. "All in good time Doctor, your husband is safe and recovering in the infirmary on level four. We'll bring him down as soon as he's mobile. But in the meantime I think I really need to show you how serious I am about all this." He turned to Preston and said coldly, "Get Wheaton and his assistant in here now. We're going to test the latest beta on the good doctor's partner. He's already shown he's a viable candidate when he double-crossed the Ring two years ago."

-xXx-

The Intersects and their team moved quietly down the brightly lit hallway, double time. Approaching a corner, Sarah held her fist up, then spun around when she heard the door they had just passed open, followed by a loud smack. Cole was holding an unconscious lab technician around the chest that Nikki had felled with a single punch as he stepped through the door. Nikki quickly poked her head in the door and back, shaking her head. She then held the door open for the British operative so he could drag the man out of sight.

"Sarah, when we get done with this I really want to discuss retirement," Chuck whispered, breathing once again. He jumped, startled, and made a face before pulling his buzzing phone from his pocket. "Crap-crap-crap."

"What, Chuck?" Sarah hissed, after crouching low and glancing around the corner.

He kneeled next to her, showing her the phone.

Hustle Chuck! They're going
to Intersect Dr. Depak! Down
the hall second door on the
left past the elevator to the
surface. Sending elevator
access codes to all your
devices now.

Hurry!

---

Act 14 - Hard Decisions

- I -

"Dammit." Sarah looked again quickly around the corner, and then locked her flaming blue eyes on Chuck's. "You heard the man, screw stealth, let's go, triple time." She spun around and sprinted down the hallway as quietly as her rubber soled boots would allow, with Chuck struggling to catch up. Sarah pointed animatedly at the elevator door as she ran by, and then slid to a stop in a crouch near the door they'd been instructed to approach. She then swiftly pulled a fiber optic camera from her pocket and stuffed the end of it under the door, panning it around while looking at the display on her phone.

"It's clear," she whispered, quickly stowing her gear, yanking the door open, and then lunging into the room with her pistol up.

The room was dark, with only the light from several computer monitors providing an eerie bluish illumination to the space. "One more room like this," Chuck said, scrambling through the door with the rest of their team right behind him. He moved past her to the next door, referring to the screen on his own phone as he crouched down in front of it. "No cameras in this one either," he whispered, pulling out his own camera and pushing it under the base of the door as Sarah placed her hand on the door handle, watching over his shoulder. "Clear."

Sarah swung the door open, and rushed into the equally darkened room while Chuck rolled in next to the door jam to clear the doorway for the rest of the team who silently followed with their weapons up. Carina and Zondra crouched behind desks covering the door to the next room.

The lanky nerd scrambled to a workstation and tapped furiously on the keyboard, glancing at his phone lying next to the keyboard every couple of seconds. One of the monitors in front of him came to life displaying a tiled view of multiple security camera feeds. "Ellie," he breathed, upon seeing his sister in one of them.

"And Manoosh," said Nikki pointing at the screen from over his shoulder with Cole and Sarah alongside her.

"That's definitely a download room. We have to get him out of there." Sarah tapped one of the tiled images with her finger. "That's the room next door?"

"Yes. Four technicians and two Fulcrum mercs. Damn, they hire some big dudes," Chuck cautiously intoned. "That's the access room to the download chamber. Ellie's in the main lab just beyond it, and that's Sloan and Preston with her."

"And four more armed mercs," warned Barker.

"Yeah," Chuck agreed with a sigh. They watched as two more white coats entered the lab and took positions at workstations near Chuck's sister. One of the monitors turned black and text scrolled across it.

They're getting ready to
Intersect Dr. Depak, Charles.
Not much time. As soon as
you get into the next room
I'll loop the download chamber
cameras. Looping staging room
camera now.

Go!

"Tranqs or Guns?" Chuck asked, turning to his wife and colleagues.

"Guns on the guards," Sarah said resolutely, "we can't chance that again, especially now."

"Okay." Chuck pursed his lips. "Nikki and Cole will lead in and take the mercs. The rest of us will get the techs, and then Sarah and I will grab Manoosh." He looked over at Sarah's two fellow CAT squad teammates. "Ladies, once we get Manoosh, I want you to get him out of here right away. Use that elevator we passed coming in here."

"Are you sure Chuckles? We should stay together." Carina did not look happy.

Chuck nodded solemnly back at her, "No time for debate. We have to make sure we get the Intersect team out of here, even if it's only a part of it."

Carina glared at him for a second then nodded curtly, "I don't like it, but we'll do it."

"Thank you, Carina, this is important. Those SEALs up there need to know we're making progress."

"Since you put it that way. I know how to keep those boys occupied," the redhead replied with a smirk.

Chuck tried to muster up a grin. "Good. I knew I could get you to come around. Let's do this."

The door flew open, and the six agents burst into the room in a staggered high/low formation. The two big mercs never even came close to raising their FN P90's, falling instantly to double-taps from Nikki and Cole's very quiet suppressed handguns. They hit the floor with more noise than the agents weapons made. The techs were also now slumped unconscious over their work consoles from multiple tranq darts. Chuck and Sarah never stopped moving as they went through the room headed directly for the access door to the download chamber.

"Damn it. It's locked out," Sarah whispered harshly when she looked at the red warning display on the keypad, "They must be getting ready to begin the download."

Chuck stared at the keypad as he started to pull his small tablet from his vest. "Shit-shit-shit-shit, I don't even see how I can tap into this thing, and it's not in the Intersect. Dad if you're listening, we could sure use some help," he exclaimed as he started to pull a small Leatherman tool from another pocket.

All of the sudden, a large knife, held by feminine hand, pierced the face of the keypad with a loud thunk and twisted it off with a small shower of sparks and tangled wires. Chuck's gaze shot over in shock at his shrugging wife, a slightly embarrassed expression painted on her face. And then both of their faces showed even more surprise when the door slid open.

"Did I do that? Or was that your Dad?"

"Don't think it matters much, Honey, c'mon!" he exclaimed, sprinting into the room.

Manoosh looked up at them in surprise when they scrambled up behind him and started to unfasten the straps holding him to the chair. "Am I ever glad to see you," he said in a rush of words, "they've started, we only have seconds."

"I don't work well under pressure, Doc, so please spare me the play-by-play, okay?" Chuck stammered, fighting the straps.

"SHIT." A low hum started to resonate from the floor of the room and Sarah swiftly cut the last strap holding Manoosh's ankle to the chair with her knife. "Let's get out of here," she said excitedly as she dropped the blade and grabbed both the Doctor and her husband by their upper arms and ran for the door. She almost dragged them, when the humming sound suddenly became very pronounced "Close your eyes!"

They flew through the door with a flurry of flashing light coming from the room behind them, rolling across the floor of the lab and coming to a very sudden stop against the side of a desk. Then the flashing lights quit when the door slid back shut with a squeaking thump.

"I guess that was your Dad," Sarah said with a quiet groan as Nikki helped her to her feet.

"And that was way too close-" Chuck's words were cut off by the piercing sound of an alarm horn filling the room at a very uncomfortable volume. "CRAP! That tears it!" he shouted over the two-tone din.

"I'm going to guess that means they found some bodies!" Cole Barker shouted back.

Chuck and Sarah glanced at each other, and Sarah took Manoosh by the arm, pushing him to Carina and Zondra. "Get him out of here!"

"But Sarah, we have to save Ellie," Dr. Depak shouted back in protest.

"We'll get her," Chuck said with an animated swing of his arm, "Now GO!"

- II -

"Ten seconds to download," said one of the engineers sitting at the consoles not far from Ellie, "Cypher spinup commencing."

"Please don't do this," Ellie murmured, "Don't do this to him."

"It's a little too late for that now, Doctor Woodcomb," Sloan answered dryly. "Dr. Depak is going to be a drone from now on."

"You bastard," Ellie breathed, glaring at him, "You dirty rot-"

The sudden oppressive wail of the alarm filling the room cut her off as Sloan and Preston exchanged angered looks at each other and the Fulcrum operatives with them raised their guns, playing them around the room.

Sloan stepped hastily to a terminal and scanned the monitor, seeing an image of one of his men panning a camera over several bodies in a corridor, and saying something he couldn't hear over the blaring sound of the alarm horns. "FUCK," he shouted, typing on the keyboard, "Get her! We'll take her to the safe room at hangar one until we find out what's going on here!"

Preston rounded the desk and yanked Ellie from her chair by her hair, bringing the barrel of his FN Five-Seven to her head as he dragged her toward the main door to the large lab.

A door on the far side of the room flew off its hinges in a loud bang and a bright flash, skidding across the floor as a phalanx of bullets flew through the room. Four green-clad agents then skidded in an array across the smooth floor.

Sloan stood bewildered for a second as he watched four of his best men cut down so rapidly, only one getting a shot off, his P90 spraying the room wildly, as he fell from shots fired by what appeared to be his own people. Then he realized two of the intruders were women, and then he recognized them when they rose to their feet with their weapons trained on Preston and him.

"Shut off that goddamned alarm!" Sloan shouted at one of the technicians still frozen in place at his console.

The man started to type on his keyboard and the alarm stopped before he'd made even a few keystrokes. "I didn't do that," he announced nervously.

"Thank you, Dad," Chuck said under his breath, twisting his index finger briefly in his ear with a small shake of his head.

"Well, Station Chief Carmichael, and his lovely wife. Or should I call you Mr. and Mrs. Bartoswki? Which would you prefer?" Sloan said sarcastically to the slowly advancing agents.

"Take your pick," Sarah coldly replied, "You won't get to use it much longer."

"Maybe you might want to rethink that. My man Preston here is the one with the gun to your sister-in-law's head. I'd suggest dropping your weapons before he accidentally shoots her on my order."

Chuck and Sarah exchanged a quick look at each other from the corners of their eyes, and Chuck gave his wife an almost imperceptible nod.

"Wise choice Mr. Bartowski, you know I'll do it."

"I don't think you understood him," Sarah said evenly, "We've already been down that fork in the road together once, and we're not taking it again... ever."

Allen Preston's head jerked back twice from the impact of two .45 caliber bullets that flew true from the STI pistol Nikki had gifted to Sarah only the day before. When Preston fell lifelessly to the floor, he dragged Ellie down with him, and they fell in a tangled heap. Then Nikki shouted a warning as a grenade flew through a side door spinning to the middle of the floor not far from Chuck's feet.

"Chuck, NO!" Sarah watched as the world went into slow motion, and her husband took two very agonizingly slow steps and kicked the flashbang grenade back out the door where it exploded in mid-flight just outside the open doorway. All hell then broke loose, as Fulcrum operatives started to spill through the main door into the room with guns blazing.

But they fell like they were being cut by a scythe, from the bullets of Cole Barker's Walther, and the mind-bogglingly rapid and accurate fire of the Intersect couple's guns, as they shot back, while literally tumbling like gymnasts across the room. Nikki Lawson crouched with both her suppressed pistols up, knocking down dazed enemy agents like bowling pins as they tried to join the fight from the side door through which Chuck had kicked the grenade.

Chuck watched with a grimace as Sloan scrambled out the main door in the pandemonium and disappeared. In seconds it was over, and Sarah ran to Ellie who was trapped under the bulk of Allen Preston's body near the front door.

Shoving the big man's body off her sister-in-law Sarah looked her over quickly, checking her for bullet wounds. "Are you okay?" she asked breathlessly, studying Ellie's dazed eyes with concern.

"Yes. Yes, I think so," Ellie responded slowly refocusing on Sarah, then taking her up in an embrace, "Thank you, Sarah."

Edgar Sloan ran around the outer hallway to the auxiliary elevator at the back of the labs and cursed, pounding his hand on the keypad when he saw it was at the top of the shaft. Several attempts to enter the code would not bring the car back down, and he screamed another string of expletives as he paced back and forth in front of the door. Finally kicking it, he ran back down the opposite corridor, fumbling in his pocket for his phone.

"Everyone okay?" Chuck asked, as he scrambled over to his wife and sister and covered the doorway.

"I'm good," replied Cole, "But Sloan got away."

"Yeah, but he's not going to get far," said Chuck absently. "Nikki?" he asked, peeking out the partially open door before pulling his buzzing phone from his pocket.

"I'm fine too, Boss. Hallway's clear," Nikki said, coming back into the room through the side door. "Nice kick, Chuck. That could have been real ugly otherwise. Though, I think we need to get out of here before more bad guys come down here and try to ruin our day."

"We're leaving? Where's Devon? Did you get Devon?" Ellie asked shakily, "Chuck we can't leave without him. Sloan said he's in the infirmary on level four," she said with growing panic when she saw no answers forthcoming. "Chuck, we can't-"

"We'll get him, Ellie. That was Dad. He kept Sloan from using that elevator, says he's headed for the main entrance." Chuck pursed his lips, his gaze falling soberly on his wife, "Sarah, you and Nikki take my sister out of here. Cole and I will get Devon."

"No." Sarah glared at him, as she took his arm in a tight grip. "We stay together, Chuck, no matter what. I'm going with you."

Chuck shook his head. "Look, Sarah. Devon is injured, and we may have to carry him out of here. Cole's the best choice for this. You know it."

"He's right, Sarah," Cole agreed, casting her a reassuring half-smile. "We all know how strong you are, but are you prepared to carry Devon out of here by yourself in a fight if you have to? We'll get Ellie's husband. And I'll carry both of them if I have to." He turned to Nikki asking the question only with his eyes, and she nodded resolutely, placing her hand on Sarah's arm.

"No. No, Chuck." Sarah paused, and her gaze fell to the floor like she was considering what more to say. "I'm supposed to protect you," she whispered, knowing what they were going to face if they went up to that part of the base.

"Please, Sarah," Chuck pleaded, as he rose to his feet, holding her hands, "We don't have time for this. We'll get Devon. Please help Nikki make sure my sister gets out of here."

Sarah rose and took him up quickly in her arms, "Damn it, Chuck. You better be careful. No heroics. No repeats of what happened with that monster at the entrance to this place."

Chuck kissed his wife and crossed his finger over his chest. "I promise."

"Then get going now, before I change my mind."

He nodded at her with a thin smile, giving her another quick kiss. Then he nodded at Cole and they were gone.

"Dammit," Sarah said weakly, staring at the ground misty eyed, "Please don't make me regret letting you do this, Chuck."

- III-

Up on the surface things became very active as armed Fulcrum operatives began to pour out of the door of a large blockhouse not far from the entrance to the underground command center. "This does not look good," said John Casey, surveying the situation from their perch on the hill overlooking the airport.

"I concur," Tony Carmichael replied, watching through the spotting scope. "We can't let those guys go below ground. If they're in trouble down there..."

"So help me, Chuck, if I'm missing out on any CQB..." Casey made a quiet grunt like he'd already made the decision. "Gertie, I'm engaging. Let's let em' have it." He didn't even wait for an answer, unleashing his first shot that slapped a Fulcrum operative to the ground not far from the command center door.

"Nice shot, Johnny. On the way," Gertrude said casually over the comm link. The air filled with the sound of muffled high-power rifle fire as Fulcrum mercenaries started to fall like dominoes and scatter in disarray. Then the shooting became even more pronounced when several SEAL sniper teams joined the macabre dance.

"You better get your asses out of there in one piece, Chuck," Casey muttered under his breath between shots.

-xXx-

"Crap! They locked the door out!" Chuck tried another code from his phone but it failed too, with an access denied message. His phone buzzed and his earbud crackled to life, and then the display changed showing Edgar Sloan pacing like a caged carnivore in front of the elevator leading to the command complex.

"Chuck."

"Dad? Oh man, it's so good to hear your voice."

"It's good to hear yours too, son. I'm delaying that elevator, but Sloan has someone trying to manually override it. I'm trying to hack the door. Stand by."

They stood there waiting for what felt like an eternity, but what in reality were only seconds.

"Lots of bad guys coming down the stairs Chuck, so don't use them. Let Sloan take the elevator. I'll hold the outer doors open. Timing will be critical. You'll have to grab onto the bottom of the car as it heads up. I'll open the doors at level four as it passes so you can jump out. Do you understand?"

"Yes. We understand, Dad. I don't like it, but I understand it."

"Clever," said Cole, "This is looking less like a suicide mission every minute."

"The odds are still not in your favor," Stephen Bartowski dispassionately said. "You'll be on your own for a while. I have to get that other elevator back down for Ellie and Sarah."

Several seconds passed, and they watched through the hacked security feed.

"Got it," Stephen said with satisfaction when the Elevator door opened and Sloan ran in. Then the door in front of Chuck and Cole slid open just as the elevator car door slid shut. "Go, Chuck. Good luck."

They got to the door just as the elevator car started up. Chuck looked at Cole and gulped as the SIS agent smiled confidently at him. "Piece of cake, Agent Carmichael. Just don't look down."

"Right, don't look down," he replied, grabbing onto the undercarriage when it came within reach and closing his eyes.

"I said don't look down, not close your eyes."

Chuck forced his eyes open to see Cole looking at him with a cheeky grin. Then he looked down. "Crap! Don't look down."

Right about that time Fulcrum agents started to spill out of the stairwell at the end of the corridor.

-xXx-

"What is taking so long?" Sarah said impatiently, as they stood waiting for the elevator that would be their only means of escape from this place.

"Having some trouble with the override," Stephen Bartowski said into their earbuds. "They've got someone throwing countermeasures at me now, causing all sorts of trouble."

"Mr. Bartowski? Is that you?"

"None other. Be patient, daughter-in-law. I'm working on it."

"Is that my Dad?" Ellie asked, wide-eyed. "Can I talk to him?"

Sarah looked back at her, not sure how to accommodate her request.

"Hand her your phone, Sarah, I'm patching through that network. FYI, Chuck and Cole are on the way up."

"Thank you, that's good to know." Sarah said with worry, handing her iPhone to Ellie.

"Dad?"

"Hi Eleanor, I'm glad you're okay, but we don't have time to talk and I need to concentrate right now. And I need to talk to Chuck. Stand by."

-xXx-

"Chuck?"

"Yeah, Dad? Starting to lose grip here a little."

"Almost there son, get ready to jump. When I tell you, you'll have to swing forward and let go."

"Yer shittin' me..."

"Trust me, son. The door is open, and the corridor is clear. Get ready. Use the Intersect."

"Right, already done. I didn't even have to think about it."

"Excellent. That's exactly what we were trying to achieve. Slowing the car a bit. Here we go...three, two, one, NOW."

Chuck and Cole swung forward as the open door to the elevator shaft flashed into view and they tumbled onto the smooth concrete floor of the hallway, quickly drawing their weapons and covering both directions back-to-back.

"Ace's Charles. I knew you could do it. Get down the hallway to Cole's front, PDQ. Around the corner, second door on the left."

Chuck and Cole looked over their shoulders at each other curiously, then Cole grinned and pointed up at a security camera, shaking his head.

"Gotta go, Chuck. Hurry," his father said curtly, "the place is crawling with bad guys."

-xXx-

"Elevator's coming down, daughters."

"Hurry, Stephen, I think I hear company coming," Sarah warned, listening to the sound of boots echoing in the corridors.

"I know. They're coming up the hallway you approached the lab from. You and Nikki may have to hold them off at the corner for a minute."

Sarah nodded to no one in particular and turned to Ellie. "Stay here at the door. When the car gets here, you get in, no hesitation, understood?"

Ellie, nodded back grimly, "Please don't make me leave here alone, Sarah."

Sarah gazed at her sister a moment, biting her lower lip, and then took her up in an embrace, "I'll try not to, sis, but if we don't make it into this elevator car you make sure you find your way out of here, okay?" She broke the hug and gave Ellie's hands a squeeze. "Promise me."

"I'll get out, I promise," Ellie said, her mouth drawn tight, "With you," she added with a resolute smile when Sarah and Nikki had started down the passage.

Sarah paused and turned back to return the smile in kind before they moved down the hall.

-xXx-

Chuck stepped swiftly into the center of the hallway from around the corner and raised his tranq gun, unleashing four blindingly fast shots at the Fulcrum agent guarding the doorway thirty feet down the hall. The man collapsed in what looked like slow motion, his legs giving out from under him as he crumpled to the floor loudly.

No sooner had the darts left the gun, Cole shot around the corner and they both sprinted for the door hitting the floor in a slide just as it swung open and two more enemy agents started to come out. Chuck kicked the feet out from under one of them and grabbed the security door, holding it open as he slid by it while Cole tranqed the second and then finished the agent toppled by Chuck. They both then rolled into the room and shot a male nurse and another guard who was reaching for his radio.

Devon looked up with total surprise when the nurse slumped across him on the bed. He was pale, but he looked fairly alert, and his hands jerked at the straps restraining them and his ankles to the bed rails. "Chuck! Am I ever glad to see you, Bro. How did you get in here?"

"A story for another time, Devon, we are way pressed for time." The two agents quickly freed Devon from the bed, and when they pulled him into a sitting position, he grimaced. "Can you walk?" Chuck asked, noting the look of pain on his brother's face.

"I'll make myself walk, Chuck. Hell, I'll make myself run if I have to. Just point me in the direction you want me to go."

"Good." Chuck nodded, sizing up the unconscious guard, and quickly starting to strip him of his uniform, handing Devon the pants. "Then I'll lead. Let Cole here give you a hand if you need it, okay?"

"You got it, amigo. But I'll try not to cramp your partner's heres style," Devon said, as he pulled on the boots that were about a size and a half too big for him.

Chuck peered out the door again after they had dragged the two downed guards into the room. "Coast is clear. Let's get the hell out of Dodge. You're going to pose as a prisoner, got it?"

"Absolutely," Devon replied with pain laced smile, "100% compliant."

"Then here we go," Cole said with his gun at Devon's side, "Don't hesitate to lean on me if you have to."

They walked calmly down the hallway, past the elevator and several doors. Chuck had just rounded a corner, the stairwell door in sight and only a short sprint away, when a door ahead of them swung open and a large group of Fulcrum operatives started to file out into the hallway. He hastily ducked back around the corner, motioning Cole and Devon back.

"Start a room to room search. We think they may be up here to get the Doctor."

"Crap," Chuck mouthed to Devon and Cole, looking quickly around, then pointing vigorously to a door near them. They backed through the door into the darkened room and Chuck scanned the crates around them and flashed. "Geezzuss, they left this room unlocked?" he asked incredulously as they backed in between the stacks of crates.

"What do you mean?" Cole asked inquisitively, with a slight tilt of his head.

"Look." Chuck pointed at the crates, clearly marked 'C-4 - High Explosive'.

"Oh, bloody hell, this will make a very big boom."

"That's not the half of it. I studied the schematics of this place provided by the Intersect very carefully. There's storage for about 40,000 gallons of jet fuel in underground tanks on the other side of that wall," Chuck said, pointing across the room. "And if that's not enough, about two thousand gallons of liquid oxygen and nitrogen in storage tanks about fifty feet that way," he added, pointing.

"Damn. A very big boom, indeed. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? "

"Yeah, as surprising as that sounds. We can bring this entire place down, end this once and for all." Chuck reached into one of his belt pouches and pulled out two small round explosive devices with built-in timers. He pensively pursed his lips as he stared at it before looking resolutely back at Cole. He'd run out of other options. "I guess it pays to come prepared for all contingencies. Help me with one of these crates."

"And how are we going to get out of here if you're bringing this place down around our ears, Chuck," Devon whispered with excited worry.

"I have a plan, Awesome. It may be drastic, but it's a plan... and probably our only way out alive. Besides, one way or the other, there's no damn way I'm going to let this place stay intact if we can take it all down now. Dad, if you can hear me..."

-xXx-

Sarah stuck her fiber optic camera around the hallway corner, watching a large group of enemy operatives advance on their position.

"We can't stay here long, you know, they'll flank us through the labs in no time," Nikki observed as she looked back toward Chuck's sister standing apprehensively by the elevator.

"We'll have to let them get real close, then give them a very bloody nose," Sarah whispered, watching the camera. "Then we'll run like hell and hope Stephen can get the elevator to us in time. We should only need a few seconds, and it beats trying to hold them off exposed in the hallway."

"Just say the word, Sarah, and I'll take the high road."

"Getting close." Sarah pocketed her camera and started to count down, tucking her fingers into her palm. She closed her fist and nodded. Then she turned around the corner in a crouch, bracing her stance against the wall. Nikki stepped out high, her suppressed pistols akimbo, and they shot a wall of precisely aimed bullets down the corridor. Fulcrum agents fell wholesale, before they finally returned fire, and the walls near the women erupted in fragments of flying concrete and lead as they jumped back to cover behind the corner.

Nikki reloaded, and then poked quickly back around the corner, releasing another volley to wild commotion and erratic return fire. When she pulled back Sarah pushed her arms out again low and repeated the mantra for several quick Intersect aided shots that added to the growing pile of bodies in the middle of the hall.

"Oh wow, that did it," Nikki said, taking another quick peek along with a couple of shots, "They're retreating, headed into the lab. I think it's time to go!"

"Right. I hope that's enough. Let's get the hell out of here." They turned and sprinted back up the hallway while Ellie watched them with eyes as big as saucers.

The elevator door opened, but Ellie didn't even see it because she was so fixated on the two sprinting agents coming at her at breakneck speed. When Nikki and Sarah were only ten or fifteen feet away, one of the doors to the labs flew open and a couple of Fulcrum agents started to shoot. The two women dove through the air, and time slowed to a crawl for Sarah as she twisted and took aim as she flew, returning fire. The next thing she knew, she was in the elevator car with Nikki and Ellie, who were piled in the corner as a result of the NSA agent's flying tackle of the elder Bartowski sibling.

Bullets impacted the rear wall of the car, but the wild drumbeat of projectiles stopped abruptly when the doors slid shut, turning to plinks on armored steel. Then the elevator started to rise.

"Anyone else hit?" Sarah exclaimed, reaching for her side where a bullet had impacted her vest as she flew into the car. She looked over to see Nikki checking Ellie over carefully from head to toe as Chuck's sister stared at them in a state of shock. "Ellie! Ellie! Are you okay?! Talk to me!"

Ellie blinked hard, and shook off her stupor, her mouth snapping shut, "I'm fine, I'm fine! What about you! You're holding your side," she said hoarsely, scrambling to her knees to check Sarah.

"I'm okay, I'm okay, I think it glanced off the side trauma plate and hit the front panel at an angle. I don't think it went through," Sarah replied rapid fire, sticking her hand under her vest and bringing it back out dry, showing it to Ellie. "Help me check Nikki, Ellie." Nikki looked fine to her, but she knew giving Ellie something to do with her training would help pull her back from the shock of what had just happened.

"I'm okay, too, though I do not know how, or why," Nikki said, with a slow exhale as she leaned back against the wall of the car and let Ellie check her over.

They slumped on the floor, overwhelmed by the adrenaline, and waited while the elevator ascended.

-xXx-

They could hear the Fulcrum mercs searching the rooms around them, getting closer with each passing second. Chuck wound some tape around the large block of C-4, firmly attaching the already powerful explosive device he was using to fuse it, and then set it at his feet. He then held the second block up and looked at Cole inquiringly, "Four minutes, agreed?"

"Affirmative, that should give us enough time to get to the tunnel, and then no one will be following us."

Chuck nodded grimly in agreement, "If nothing goes wrong." He set the timer on the other explosive charge and placed it back in the crate they had opened, and Cole popped the lid back down with his palm. "Can you run Devon? You may have to," Chuck inquired, fixing his eyes on his brother-in-law.

"Are you kidding? Get blown to smithereens, or run in pain. There's a tough decision."

"I'll take that as a yes. Get ready then, it's time for a distraction." Chuck picked up the block of C-4 and shuffled to the door, peeking into the hallway as a group of Fulcrum operatives started to round the corner at the end. "Okay, brace yourselves," he warned, swinging the door open.

He made a lanky leap across the hallway and flung the door open on the opposite side. Then he gulped, and stared at four armed men, as he pushed the delay button and threw the charge deep into the room. For a split-second he watched as the four enemy agent's eyes fixed on the flying block of C-4, and then he launched himself back across the hallway to the sound of submachine gun fire and kicked the door shut behind him. Not more than two seconds passed, and the floor slapped them up into the air with a thunderous crump from the high-velocity explosive impulse.

Chuck scrambled to his feet, stunned and choking in the dust for a second, letting the Intersect do its crisis management routine on his brain and the ringing in his ears. He watched Cole get to his feet, helping Devon, and looked out the open doorway into the debris-filled corridor - because the door was no longer there. He could see what used to be the room across from them, with a gaping hole in the floor visible through the hanging dust and huge jagged holes ripped in the walls. "You guys okay?"

Cole nodded crisply, locking eyes with him, with a wry grin. "That was some distraction!"

"Hell yes it was!" Devon choked, "Jesus, Chuck, are you crazy?!"

"I think it's time to leave," Chuck answered excitedly, his voice at least an octave higher as he drew his weapon and urged his companions toward the hallway. "Try to look like victims, and if that doesn't work, shoot."

-xXx-

"What was that?" Ellie asked when the elevator car shook with a thump in the shaft.

"Felt like an explosion. High velocity... plastique," Nikki muttered, exchanging a wary look with Sarah.

The door slid open, and they stepped into a small reinforced concrete room, with two explosive proofed light fixtures on the arched ceiling above them, casting the room in a ghastly, orange tinged glow. Sarah looked around hastily for a door, but there wasn't one anywhere obvious to her, only a keypad on the wall.

"I can't hack it. I've been locked out," said Stephen's scratchy voice in her ear, you'll have to bypass it manually. Sending the schematic to your phone now, but hurry, you don't have much time."

"What does that mean, Stephen?" Sarah asked, suddenly alert from the tone of his voice. "Why don't we have much time?"

There was a long pause as Ellie held the phone up for Sarah, and she flashed, knowing immediately what to do as she pried the face plate off the keypad with one of her throwing knives. "Talk to us. What's going on Stephen?"

"Because of Chuck, Sarah. He's pulled the plug on this place. You have about three and a half minutes to get out of there before that whole complex blows sky high."

Sarah felt her heart hammer in her chest at her father-in-law's words, and she let the Intersect lead her through the process almost like she was a spectator while she watched her hands work on the wiring. What had he done? Why was he doing this? Was he going to get out of this alive? Her mouth went as dry as the desert, with the sudden realization that her worst fears might come true. Even worse, she thought. Her spirit felt dead in her chest, because Devon was with her Chuck.

Seconds passed, while she cut and stripped the wires with the knife blade and quickly twisted them together in the sequence laid out in her mind. Then a deep mechanical clicking sound resonated from the ceiling, and a section of the wall moved in and slid up with the sound of heavy turning gears, revealing a dark, dirt floored concrete tunnel with an arched ceiling beyond. A bright light was coming from the end of it in the distance.

- IV -

Chuck led Cole and Devon as they moved through the debris as quick as they could, rounding the corner again that led to the stairwell down to level five, and their best means of escape. Several Fulcrum agents lay wounded and stunned in the hallway, and they strode carefully past them to the doorway leading down. Chuck glanced at his watch as he swung the door open, and stared at the heavily damaged metal staircase hanging precariously from the wall. "We've got a problem guys."

"Bollocks," Cole growled at the twisted metal trapeze, "Do you think it will hold?"

"Doubtful. In fact, the Intersect says no. If it goes it'll be a long hard fall to the bottom. I think I've got another idea. C'mon." Chuck led them back the way they came down the hallway, at a trot glancing at his watch.

"Chuck, we're going back toward all those explosives," Devon warned, through a grimace.

"I know, Awesome, trust me, this is going to work, but we have to hurry."

He led them through the debris to the bombed out floor of the room he had thrown the C-4 into and looked down through the jagged maw into the darkness. Pulling a light stick from his vest, he cracked it, and after a quick shake threw it down into the darkness. "Yes! This way."

Chuck jumped down a few feet onto the pile of rubble that was once the floor above and stepped onto the debris-filled floor of the level five room. It was next to the one he and Sarah had shot the group of Fulcrum agents in when they'd started. He helped Cole lower Devon down, then scrambled over the wreckage to the door and peered out into the corridor through the partially open door hanging on one hinge. "The corridor is clear, let's hustle guys we only have about two minutes."

They ran down the hallway with Chuck leading and Cole assisting a limping Devon. Chuck kept glancing at his watch, knowing they weren't going to make it if there wasn't some form of transportation still at this end of the tunnel. Sprinting through the large open security door into the big tunnel, it didn't occur to him until it was too late that there was something wrong about that door being open. He skidded to a stop, face-to-face with six Fulcrum Mercs.

Guns started to rise, and the Intersect kicked in. He leapt in close, and engaged the agents in hand-to-hand combat, using tight arcing kicks, joint locks, elbows, and hammer blows while his opponents attempted to overwhelm him. The Intersect had dictated a combination of Keysi, Muay Thai, and Aikido, making him look like a strangely fluid and lanky version of Batman.

In mere seconds, he had three of the large men down and his remaining adversaries staggered. One lunged in with a large blade, and he pulled him in and snapped his arm like a twig at the elbow, taking the knife from him and flinging it behind him - not even looking until the very last instant. It flew into with incredible force through the ballistic vest of one of the remaining two who was leveling his pistol on him.

Chuck pressed in, landing an elbow into the mortally wounded man's face, then jerked the Fulcrum agents gun hand to aim the man's own weapon at his last opponent. But a suppressed gunshot rang out, and Chuck watched the last man go down. He lowered the man he'd just killed with a blade gently to the ground in a state of shock, staring at Cole, who'd shot the last enemy operative. The Merc who would have most likely killed him if Cole hadn't shot when he did. It was that close. Devon was looking at him with an expression of abject disbelief, unable to comprehend what he'd just seen his brother-in-law do.

"How much time, Chuck?" Cole exclaimed, shaking him with a hand on his shoulder. "Chuck! Snap out of it!"

Chuck's eyes shot to him, and then he looked abruptly at his watch, taking a sudden deep breath, "Shit! Less than a minute! C'mon guys."

The three of them piled into one of the two remaining golf carts, still parked where they'd left them, and raced down the tunnel as fast as the little electric cart would go with Cole at the wheel.

"We're not going to make it are we?" Devon said, staring down the long tunnel ahead of them.

"Yes. Yes, we are," Chuck answered resolutely, furiously typing on his iPhone before looking up at Devon with confidence in his eyes. "We're not toast yet, Devon. I have one idea left, and we still have a good chance."

About forty seconds later an explosion that started out as a sharp slap, and then morphed into a long, continuous, and rolling thunderclap rocked the big underground complex. And a huge fireball rolled down the tunnel toward the airplane hangars at the other end.

- V -

The three battered and tired women, one with a now pronounced limp, trotted out of the tunnel into the bright early morning sunshine of a small verdant forest clearing, surrounded by shrubs and trees. The beauty around them was a shock to the system compared to the deep underground environment they'd just come from.

The forest was eerily silent as Sarah looked around them, and then back down the tunnel from which they'd just emerged. Then she turned back when Nikki cleared her throat, to see they were surrounded by a group of very serious looking soldiers. SEALs.

"Sarah, what is going on?" Ellie asked, when one of the men with a close cropped blond beard strode forward.

"Follow my lead, sis, we're going to get through this. I think these guys are on our side."

"Agent Carmichael, I'm Lt. Griggs, Black Squadron. We're here to take you into custody."

"Excuse me? We've had a very rough morning. Did you say custody?" asked Nikki with a serious touch of defiance in her voice.

The Navy Lieutenant smiled a little guardedly at Nikki, and then eyeballed Sarah. "Those are my orders ma'am-"

"Orders, schmorders," Nikki growled, "I'm a commander and potentially your worst nightmare-"

"Understood, Sir. So you know the protocol I have to follow. We've already picked up three of your colleagues, and-" He stopped short when the ground shook beneath their feet, and they all looked curiously around them. The Navy SEAL's eyes then went wide and he rushed forward and physically shoved all three women across the clearing to the ground, spreading himself over them... "Take COVER!"

The sound of a freight train bore down on them, and the ground heaved under them, followed by an incredibly powerful blast and a pressure wave that shot from the tunnel from which they'd just emerged like a giant blowtorch. The heat was oppressive, and it seemed to suck the oxygen right out of the air and their lungs. Then a few seconds later, the sound of what could have been houses falling from the sky filled the air and shook the ground as massive pieces of concrete rained down all around them for several seconds.

When the shaking finally stopped, Sarah pushed the Navy Lieutenant off of her and rolled over to see a dark pall of smoke emerging from the tunnel and from several places over a low hill several hundred feet away from them. Her heart leapt into her throat when it hit her what it could mean. No one inside the Fulcrum base could have survived such a conflagration.

"Sarah." She felt someone nudge her shoulder. "Sarah. Look at this." Ellie was holding Sarah's phone up. She'd been carrying it since they'd bypassed the access door to the tunnel.

Sarah took it from her sister's hand and saw she had a new text message... from Chuck. It had been sent just before the explosion they'd all just barely lived through. Nervously she pulled it up and read it.

I'm going to be a little
while longer.

Meet me at Nadrazi Station
for the 3:00PM train to
Budapest.

I love you Sarah Walker.

Will you quit the spy life
and runaway with me?

Yours always, Chuck

Sarah just lay there, staring at the message with tears rolling down her cheeks. All she could do was hope that the message meant the love of her life was still alive.

- VI -

From their hillside sniper perch above the airport John Casey and Anthony Carmichael watched as the secret Fulcrum complex came unhinged in front of them. They'd received word that Carina, Zondra, and Dr. Depak had made it out. But had yet to hear if any of their other teammates had made it to safety before the base exploded violently with a thunderous report and a shock wave that slapped them hard from over a half mile away.

Casey knew that if his friends were still below ground, they were now gone. He scanned the complex with his riflescope looking for survivors but saw only a very few battered individuals climbing from the wreckage of the heavily reinforced base. None of them was Chuck or Sarah, or any of the other members of their team.

Thick black smoke came from multiple buildings, from the command center all the way to the blast resistant airplane hangars, and orange flame was spewing, like a volcano, from where the entrance to the command center had once been. The entire reinforced concrete roof of the large above ground part of the command building, and probably several floors below it, had been blown into large and small pieces, with twisted rebar sticking out of them. They were scattered all over the airport; grizzly reminders of the sheer force of the explosion that had left not much more than a smoking hole in the ground.

"Now it's raining SEALs," Tony observed with a glance toward a sky dotted with gray square chutes.

Casey's grunt sounded sarcastic as he watched the HALO jumpers begin to flair for landings while continuing to survey the destruction. "Looks like they're a little late for the party."

"Yeah. Casey, coming out of the far west hangar, look," said Tony placing his hand on the big man's shoulder.

He panned the scope over to the hangar in question and watched a man in a dark suit emerge from one of the doors and walk purposefully toward a Black BMW. "Son-of-a-bi...your life is mine, you wretched scumbag. No way are you walking away from this. Range."

"I'm showing 1440 meters," Tony said quickly. "Wind is on the beam from the right at about three."

"Roger that." The Colonel made some quick adjustments on his rifle scope and reacquired his target.

"He's getting in the car."

"I've got him. Ugh, that tie looks awful." Casey breathed, then exhaled and held it, and felt his pulse in his neck. The Barrett MRAD rifle recoiled, and the big bullet flew flawless for the second and a half of flight from the top of the hill and across the airport.

"Hit," Tony said without emotion when the bullet impacted the windshield and he watched the target jerk violently in the seat. "You stoned him."

"Goodbye, Edgar Sloan, you slimy SOB," Casey said quietly, "It's a damn shame it was so quick and painless."