Let us do something, while we have the chance.
Still don't own Chuck.
"Sometimes it helps to know that you got something to lose."
--Agent Walker Episode 3.4
Chapter 5—the Hard Night
Casa Bartowski
Chuck was still rocking back and forth in the bed. Sarah was on the bed with her legs underneath her holding him as he rocked. She had her arms around him and had moved her face in front of his so that he could no longer see the screen. He tried a weak smile and managed, "Wow…whatever…happened to…a heart with…Love You Mom."
Dorothy was by the bed watching him and the monitors. Dorothy and Sarah started talking at the same time, "How are you? Are you okay?"
"Okay…trying to…calm down. Just…a second," Chuck replied while still rocking.
Dorothy saw that the monitors showed the heart rate had leveled off but was not yet heading down. She looked over to Sarah, "I have to call Doc Adams."
Sarah nodded and held Chuck harder. Sarah started running her hand through his hair. She began, "It's okay, you'll be fine," and repeating it.
Chuck was trying hard to calm down. The flashes had put him into a state where he was gaining tons of information and at the same time trying to correlate it and do planning as though he was preparing for an epic battle. Chuck managed, "Have teams…report in…now… Problems… Need laptop." He could only get a few words out then he would have to take a breath and rock.
Dorothy put down her cell after she got Doc Adams. He was coming over. He told her to hold off giving anything else to Chuck until he got there. Dorothy heard Chuck and got the laptop. "I need him to calm down," she said to Sarah.
"Please…will…ambush," was all that Chuck could get out.
Sarah grabbed the phone and connected with Eldie to relay the request to have the teams report in. She told him to get Mary and Casey and between the three of them make sure everyone got on-line for a conference call. Sarah was watching Dorothy decide whether to give the laptop to Chuck. She interjected, "Please. Knowing him, he would get worse if you did not let him have it."
Dorothy reached over and handed the laptop to Chuck, "If you don't noticeably lower you heart rate, I'll take it back." She gave him a look that was worse than anything he'd seen from Beckman.
Chuck shook his head that he understood. Chuck began again, "Don't…know… Need picture…of men…who took…girls away." Chuck stared the laptop.
Sarah put her hand on his, "Can this wait till Doc Adams is here and we start to get you calmed down?" She watched him think about it. Then she realized what he was thinking; "They could be from a different part of the traffickers, right?"
"Overseas… really bad." Chuck said.
Sarah knew what he was thinking, 'always protect the teams'. She said, "I'll call them back."
Chuck's face showed immediate relief. Then he added, "I'll wait." He laid back and Sarah could tell there was he would start to calm down.
Sarah quietly closed the laptop and called Eldie again. She told him to give her a call when he had the conference established and they would join. She got next to Chuck and put her arms around him again. It almost seemed as though he had rocked himself to sleep.
Doc Adams came in from the conference room through the next room. When he opened the bedroom door and saw that Chuck was asleep, he motioned to Dorothy and they went to the next room. He listened to Dorothy explain what had happened then went back to Chuck.
Sarah saw them leave for the next room, but waited until they came back before she left Chuck's side. Sarah was watching the monitors too. She could tell his heart rate was still high but had decreased from the prior levels.
Doc Adams already had his stethoscope out and used it to check Chuck's lungs. He went to Sarah, "Okay, there is a little bubbling sound. It could be some excess fluid or the start of another rupture. We have to get his heart rate down from where it is. It could be contributing."
Sarah did not like the sound of this, "So what are you saying?"
"Another rupture with this high heart rate could be fatal. I need to take him back to the hospital so we can get a picture of the area. An MRI would work. I am going to give him something that will put him to sleep and then we will head over to the hospital. Dorothy, give the guards a call to get this rolling." Doc Adams directed.
Sarah got the call from Eldie. The teams were all on-line. She knew that Chuck was right with the new information the best thing was to recall the teams. Sarah said, "Mary and Casey, this is Sarah. I want you to withdraw our teams now. You can leave the surveillance equipment in place. I want our people out now." She turned to see Doc Adams giving Chuck the shot. Chuck was awake and nodded his head at Sarah. Sarah continued, "Be alert there could be an ambush or counterstrike by the traffickers. Stay in continuous contact and report progress. Mary and Casey let me know if you have any deviations to the previous extraction plans."
Mary came on next, "Sarah, this is Mary. Is Chuck okay?" Eldie had said that Doc Adams was called but did not know what had happened.
Sarah could only say, "No." She turned to Doc Adams to check on his progress. Chuck was already asleep.
Doc thought she was looking to him to add something and said, "Doc Adams here. We are talking Chuck back to the hospital. He has an abnormally high heart rate and we need to check his lungs."
Mary immediately picked up, "Sarah, you go with them. We'll do fine and get everyone back. We'll leave the conference line open so you can check in, but right now I think all of us want you to go take care of him."
Dorothy spoke up next, "They have the van ready." Two of the protection detail were coming in the bedroom with a stretcher. Doc Adams and Dorothy helped them get Chuck on to the stretcher.
As they were getting ready Doc Adams asked, "Are you coming?"
Sarah nodded, "Mary, John, everyone be careful. I'm heading to the hospital with Chuck." Sarah disconnected her line. She decided that she would call back from the hospital once she knew Chuck's condition. She had to make one more call, "Hey Ellie. Chuck is having some problems, high heart rate and a little gurgling in his lungs. We are headed back to the hospital. Where are you?"
Ellie answered, "Our shift just ended. But we'll wait here. Have Ben call us, we can get things set up." Ellie came back, "Sarah, it will be okay. We'll take care of him."
Sarah got her bag and followed the procession, "Thanks so much. I'll have Ben call back in a couple minutes."
The group got out to the van. The protection detail guards put Chuck in the van and then took their position as the driver and shotgun for the van. Sarah and Doc Adams got in back with Chuck. Casey talked to the protection detail lead and told him to concentrate on Chuck and back fill at the apartments as soon as they could.
Seattle
The plan for Alice and her team was to leave the hotel and drive immediately to Vancouver. There they would meet at another hotel and get the earliest flight possible to LA. They left in pairs. A team member and one of the protection detail members in each of the cars. With the extra protection detail members there were two extra cars that would follow the team member's car and check for any problems.
Alice had closed the blinds in her hotel windows. She left the lights on in the room and then started the automatic call recordings. It was adaption to the phone that Steven had used in his escapes as Orin. It would use the hotel phone system and start making calls. If someone was connected to the hotel system they could tell the room phone was in use. If they tapped the phone, they would get to hear a prerecorded conversation with Mom, a sister or another family member.
Alice went down the stairs to the basement level. She saw her car in the back. Walking to it, she could see two members from the protection detail. Her withdrawal was working perfectly. She was getting in the lead car. Her driver had her lay down in the back seat as they came up from the underground garage. He told her to stay down so that 'they' would not know which car to follow and whether she had really left the hotel. The basement parking came out the side of the hotel. The driver turned left and went down two blocks pulling up behind one of the other protection detail cars. He waited to confirm that the other protection detail car was behind him.
Tom and Vera went through the same procedure leaving their rooms. Tom went down the elevator and turned to go out the side door. As he started down the hall, where he was met by the Fulcrum agent. It was the agent he had seen the night before. The agent had two new girls with him and there were two more thugs behind with two girls each. Tom smiled but was trying to complete the withdrawal as planned.
The agent came up to him and said in a rather slurred voice, "Want to join us? We got more than enough." Things started downhill from there. The two thugs moved up to Tom and started to put their hands under their jacket.
Tom had his head set on and was a bit surprised that they had not noticed. He stepped back saying, "That's very nice of you. But I have to meet someone for a late dinner and I'm running a bit late myself." He had moved his hand to the Colt positioned in his back. He was ready. He could see the two from the protection detail just outside the door.
Tom knew this could start at any second. He made one more attempt, "Please excuse me, my car is out the side door." He was surprised that one of the girls made the move that decided the event. One of them came over to Tom and wrapped herself around him.
She started to kiss him. She put her mouth up to his and looked in his eyes. She was frightened and was holding to him tightly. She kissed him once then moved to tell him something. She whispered, "Columbian Security, I need the two girls behind you extracted now. They're diplomats' daughters." She continued to kiss him, and then whispered again, "They know you're FBI or something." Holding close to him, she continued to move to his side.
The agent said, "Go on, and get out of here. You can have that one as a present." The girl smiled at the agent. Tom nodded his thanks. He and the girl made their way down the hall to the door.
They were almost to the door when the girl said, "They are coming back. Their weapons are out."
Tom said into his head set, "Did you catch that?"
Vera was on-line, "Coming in back of them with my detail. Chuck would like this. Shame he is not listening; we have tranquilizers loaded and will come in shooting. Ready? One…two… Get down!"
Vera and three members of her detail came around the corner and shot at everyone standing. The other girls, the agent and the two thugs hit the floor. Tom and the Columbian agent were already crouched on the floor. Vera reported, "They're all down."
Alice had been monitoring, "We are on our way back. Get the girls, handcuff them, and put them in the cars. Take the Fulcrum agent also. Leave the thugs, we'll have enough passengers. Move the thugs to an appropriate area and we'll alert the local police of a problem at the hotel."
Tom said, "I'm going to bring the friendly one. We can't let her stay here. The Fulcrum agents or the Snakeheads would kill her after this." He saw her smiling at him.
Alice answered, "Bring her along. Have Vera make sure she no weapons." She paused a second. "Okay here's how this goes. Tom take the girls in your cars. Start loading and pull away from the hotel as soon as you are in the cars. Vera put the Fulcrum agent in one of the protection details cars. Based on what we have heard about Casey, let him have two more tranq shots after you load him."
Alice added, "We will be going to the alternate extraction point. Mary and Eldie, did you copy? We are heading to the alternate extraction point."
Mary came on-line, "Copy. Casey is here with me. We will alert them. Good job."
Portland
Kayle, Lea and Brad were still in the office across the street from the Fulcrum warehouse. Each went to the parking lot in the back of their office building. A protection detail member covered their exit and then covered the parking lot. Each of them got to the parking lot without any problem.
The team was getting in their cars when the protection detail still watching the warehouse called out, "Three armed personnel coming out of the warehouse to the office building. They are carrying Heckler & Koch G36s."
Kayle replied, "We are withdrawing. Do not engage them unless you expect them to preparing to fire on your position."
The team got in the vehicles. A protection detail member got in as the driver and another as shotgun. They left the parking lot using a route in the back. The reminder of the protection detail withdrew from the sides of the surveillance points. The team fanned out taking three routes to the Coast Guard facility.
As they hit the road, Eldie reported, "The Portland Fulcrum shooters have entered our office. They are taking out our surveillance equipment. Well, there went the last camera." Eldie smiled to himself. It looked like the Fulcrum crew was blowing off some steam, not very professional as Casey would say.
San Diego
Eldie called back into the conference line, "Mary this is probably obvious, but they know."
Mary came back, "Copy, we have our vehicles in the warehouse. We are heading out now. We are following our extraction plan. You should have the route we are taking, Harbor to Pacific, Broadway then 163 to Miramar."
"This is Casey, I have called in support. We'll have Super Cobras trailing us. We can highlight anything that is a threat and hand them off. We are set," added Casey.
Eldie answered, "Okay, I will follow your progress."
Mary got in her van. All the others were set. Two lead vans started out of the warehouse. Casey was in the next followed by Mary's van and then a van with LT and the Chief. There were two trail vans that were waiting at the first intersection at Harbor.
The first two vans went past parking lots on both sides of the street. Two cars from both sides of the street attempted to block Casey's van and those behind. They made their mistake by firing at Casey's van. With a demonstrable hostile force taking on the column, the Super Cobras were on it before the first car got to Casey's van. With a burst at each car the initial attack ended quickly. The cars ended their forward movement with their frames almost nailed to the pavement. Two of them caught fire.
Casey kept saying, "Keep moving. Drivers proceed." Casey had to duck as some of the shots were armor piecing and had come through the windows of the van. He turned around to look back at Mary's van. They were moving as Casey expected.
When the lead vans got to Harbor they made their turn and continued. After LT and the Chief went through, the two vans at Harbor took their position at the end of the procession. They made it down Harbor not quite a mile without incident. Then shooters positioned in railroad cars next to the street opened fire. They started at Casey's van and began shooting at the next three.
Windows were being shatter on each of the vans. Casey continued to press the drivers. The end vans raced to position their vans between the shooters and the teams' vans. The Cobras took position and began to fire back. In less than a minute it was over, the box cars being used by the shooters had been blow apart and the caravan had moved past them.
Casey called out, "Report by van." He listened to the count as it rolled. The first two vans had not been hit. His driver and shotgun pointed to some cuts from flying glass. He reported, "Van 3 with minor cuts from the glass."
Casey listened intently as Mary reported in saying the same thing for her van. The Chief reported in for the next, "Van 4 has one wounded, Sergeant Fallon, with a bullet to right leg almost hip. We have him in the back of the van now and are treating him." The last two vans reported no injuries.
Mary made the decision, "Team One, we will reroute to the alternate extraction point. Head directly to the Mercury Hanger at the airport." Mary had quickly decided that they could transfer the injured sergeant at the airport and continue by air. It was better than taking him another thirty minutes to Miramar.
West Side Medical
Sarah held Chuck's hand as they went to the hospital. She was rubbing it the whole way. She kept going back trying to think of something they could have done to prevent this from happening. She would think about a sequence of events and then shake her head that it would not have helped.
Doc Adams was in contact with the hospital the whole way. As soon as they got to the hospital, Doc Weidman met them. Ellie and Devon were waiting too. Doc Weidman and Adams took Chuck and proceeded down the hall. Ellie and Devon took Sarah aside to another room.
The protection details fanned out. Their lead had been listening to the reports of the other units and the problems that had been occurring. His detail covered the entrances to the hospital and the rooms where Chuck and Sarah had gone.
Sarah walked into the room and immediately fell into the first chair. She felt so tried. She knew she needed to call back into the conference line and check on their progress. But she did not get a chance, Ellie seeing her dejected look came over.
"Sarah, it will be fine. They have a good handle on what to do and there should not be any problems. Really, this will be okay," she saw Sarah nod and hold back a sniffle.
Devon chimed in, "Really Sis, he'll be fine. You'll see."
Chuck was starting to wake up and saw Doc Adams, Weidman and another doctor pointing at an x-ray.
A/N I think the computer battles are over. Hope you enjoy.
