A/N: Let me begin by expressing my displeasure at the course the show is taking after viewing the promo for the next episode. I mean, is it really that hard for the "writers" to come up with something good instead of reusing old and thoroughly disliked material? Most of the people who write here could do a far better job. Rant over. Let's hope the new chapter can help put a smile on your face.
Chapter 5
"Yeah, I got it, thanks," Chuck said. "You guys are fantastic and I mean it." After hanging up the phone he yawned and got out of bed. The guys in Langley had good news for him and his team, but they could have called a little later and not this early in the morning. Chuck had had a late night and he could use a little more sleep. But, since he was awake, he figured it was as good a time as any to start the day. Still yawning, he made his way to the nearest bathroom. Opening the door, he froze in the middle of another yawn. There, fresh out of the shower, was a gloriously naked and glistening wet Sarah Walker. She turned, looked at him and for a second both were so stunned as to be unable to move or speak.
"Sarah?" Chuck finally squeaked.
"Chuck, turn around!"
Both were blushing furiously as he turned around and exited, closing the door behind him, while she reached for her bathrobe.
Great, she thought. I picked one morning to get up early for a change and someone walks in on me as I'm getting out of the shower. Talk about lousy timing! "You can come in now, I'm decent," she said aloud.
"Thanks," he said entering the bathroom. "And sorry about before. I didn't expect anyone up at this hour, especially not you. You didn't seem like a morning person to me."
"I'm a night owl all right," she agreed. "But today was an exception. It was not your fault. You did look rather sleepy."
"Yeah, late night, plus the support team from Langley woke me up."
"They had good news, I hope."
"Oh yeah. They found what kind of safe we'll be dealing with. Now, all we need to do is get our hands on an identical one," he informed her as he splashed some water on his face.
"Or just the locking mechanism, the kind legitimate locksmiths use to practice opening safes. What did they tell you?"
"It's a Worthington Series 1000-E small size."
"The 1000 Series are notoriously difficult to crack – for the average thief."
"But they are a breeze to someone like you."
"Yes and no. You see, the E suffix means that it has an additional electronic lock. Said lock can be connected to the security system and it is prudent to assume this is the case."
"You can do it, right?"
She chewed her lower lip in thought. "It may be possible. Theoretically, I could use jumper cables to bypass the contact points, making the system think that the safe door is still closed. If a wireless connection is used, we'll need to overpower the signal from the safe, transmitting an identical one before disabling both the electronic and mechanical locks."
"The mark is not making it easy for us, is he?"
"No, but I like a challenge." She smiled. "I'll go get dressed now. You make us some coffee."
"Okie-dokie."
"Oh, and, Chuck?"
"Yeah?"
"Did you like what you saw in the bathroom?"
"Huh? Yes, I mean… I…"
"Don't sweat about it, Chuck. You already told me how respectful you are of women."
"You're evil."
"Just trying to make light out of a hugely embarrassing situation," Sarah laughed. Then she sashayed to her room, leaving a red-faced Chuck behind.
-o-
Chuck tried to forget the embarrassment by immersing himself in work. He reviewed the surveillance footage again and again, more as a way to keep busy than memorize every feature of the study, which he had already done, when he saw it.
"I'll be damned," he muttered.
"What?" Sarah asked. She was now in comfortable jeans and a turtleneck sweater and had come to get her morning coffee.
He turned and smiled. "I know where the safe is."
"You do?"
"Yup. It's in one of the locations we suspected, specifically the cabinet."
"How…?"
"I reviewed the footage we took the other day. We had missed it until now, but if you look closely, you'll see the signature of the electronic lock wireless interface."
She squinted at the computer screen. "No wonder had we missed it until now… The good news is that I can work more comfortably there and the equipment we have is more than adequate for the job."
"I can help speed the process up. I have a gadget with a killer program that you can use to find the combination of the electronic lock."
"Will it work?"
"It has worked on electronic locks made by the same company as the one on the safe, among others."
"Okay. So far so good. I won't have to compromise my own sources."
"Care to bet that we're probably buying from the same suppliers on occasion?"
"Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me, Chuck."
"But this one is something your suppliers can only dream of," he said seriously. "So, what do you want to do next?"
"I'd like a full rehearsal, timed from beginning to end. If the results are not satisfactory, we'll have to do it again and again, until we get it right."
"Will you need the support team?" Chuck asked, even though he knew the answer.
"No. Their job will simply be to cover us should we have to shoot our way out."
"I thought so. The gear I requested will be arriving before lunch, which leaves us with a lot of time to kill."
"Hey you two," Bryce said as he entered the kitchen and made a beeline for the coffee pot.
"Hi," Sarah said brightly. "Chuck has good news. We'll have everything we need to proceed with the final rehearsals today."
"Fantastic," Bryce enthused. "I'll let Casey know. You know he'll want to see the rehearsals."
"Call him. Where is Morgan?"
"I'm right here, buddy. Let me have some coffee and I'll get started on breakfast."
"How come Morgan is the only one doing the cooking?" Sarah asked, curious.
"First of all, I'm the logistics specialist. And cooking falls under a broad definition of logistics. I have also attended culinary school."
"We have our very own chef," Chuck added.
"Not really, as for the life of me I couldn't flip the shrimp."
"Don't listen to him. We're lucky to have him on the team," Bryce said. He flipped his phone in the air and caught it before stuffing it back inside a pocket. "Casey's informed about today's plans."
"What did he say?"
"He'll be here. He said something about not wanting to miss the show."
"I hope we can entertain your Mr. Casey," Sarah laughed. One of the things she noticed while staying with the CIA team was that they always had one laptop computer on and within reach. It made sense to her. They needed to be in constant contact with Langley. Said laptop suddenly beeped.
"Chuck, do you mind checking it?" Morgan said as he whisked the eggs for the omelets.
"Sure." He sat down and opened the message. "Huh. This is good."
"Is it from Langley?" Bryce asked.
"Yep. Guess what?"
"Tell us," Sarah said impatiently.
"Our villain just used his credit cards to book a flight to Cape Town, a suite in a five-star hotel and make advance reservations for a table for two at a very exclusive restaurant."
"When are they leaving?"
"Today," replied Chuck. "Looks like he's taking the wife on a romantic trip."
"Their anniversary is coming up," Morgan clarified. "You guys would know had you studied the file in depth."
Sarah immediately realized the implications and smiled slyly. "When the cat is away…"
"The cat burglars will play," Chuck finished it for her.
"I almost envy him," she continued. For security reasons they still kept her in the dark as to his identity, but she didn't mind. "It's summer in the southern hemisphere and South Africa has beautiful beaches."
"The place is also teeming with sharks," commented Bryce. "Do you think Mother Nature would do us the favor? It'll be fitting for him to end up as an entrée for a Great White."
"Hold the thought," Chuck told him. "It's wrong, but it could save a lot of legal hassle. Even with solid evidence, getting the Swiss to extradite him to the US is going to be a handful, especially when it comes to disguising the CIA's involvement. Fortunately, lawyers will be handling it."
"While Graham will hopefully give us some vacation time."
"Who?" Sarah looked up suddenly.
"Director of Central Intelligence Graham," Chuck told her.
"Oh." So, he made Director, she thought. She schooled her expression so as not to betray her thoughts. "I guess I was out of touch with some current events. Not that I care who gets to be appointed director of the CIA."
They soon finished breakfast. Chuck volunteered to do the washing up and Sarah offered to help. So, he was at the sink, washing the dishes and passing them to Sarah who dried them and put them on their shelves. They were almost done when the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" Bryce called. He was back in a couple of minutes. "The last of the gear we requested was just delivered."
"Excellent," Sarah said approvingly. "We should test it, too. And soon."
"Is now soon enough for you?"
"It most certainly is."
They gathered twenty meters behind the chalet. Sarah was acting like a little kid at Christmas with the grappling hook launcher.
"Well?"
"It'll do nicely, Morgan," she replied. Lifting the rifle-like launcher to her shoulder, she peered through the sight and pulled the trigger. The hook shot from the barrel in a hiss of compressed air, its prongs still folded as it flew unerringly towards the chimney. It passed through its vents and dropped to the roof. Since it was covered in foam rubber, it made no noise. Sarah then pulled on the line and a few seconds later pressed a button. The spring loaded prongs unfolded and rested firmly against the stone of the chimney.
"Great shot, Sarah."
"Thank you Chuck. As you guys saw, it works. Chuck, can you secure it over there?"
"Sure, why?"
"I want to test the rig. Since you're the heaviest, try holding on to the line without touching the ground. I'll watch the chimney. I think it'll hold together, but we'd better be absolutely certain."
Chuck did as requested and even bounced up and down on the line a couple of times. Everything held firm. "Okay, that's enough, I think. But who will go up to retrieve the hook?"
"Leave it to me," Sarah said.
"Be careful, OK?"
"I'm always careful," she said and climbed a ladder propped up against the edge of the roof. She soon reached the chimney, removed the hook and tossed it and the line to the guys waiting below. Then, she gracefully slid down the roof and dropped lightly on the ground to the applause of the three men.
"Bravo," said Chuck.
"Thank you. Since we still have time to kill, what are we going to do?"
"Just chill until Casey gets here. Then we begin the final rehearsals. If we finish early enough, there might still be time to go ahead with the actual operation."
"Then we must not wear ourselves out rehearsing," Sarah pointed out. "Besides, we overlooked something."
"What?"
"If we are to shoot the hook back, how are we going to get off the roof with the loot?"
"She's got a point," Bryce said.
"Everyone back inside, now," Chuck commanded. "We have planning to do."
They filed back inside the chalet. Morgan went to the kitchen, to prepare some brain food – hot chocolate. The others immediately went to the study.
"Here you go, guys," Morgan said, offering them mugs of hot chocolate. "It'll help you think."
"Thanks buddy," Chuck said. "To recap the situation: we must not leave evidence behind, nor get ourselves stranded on the roof."
"If our guy gets wind that something is wrong he could scoot off to some non extradition country and the mission will have failed," Bryce added.
"I had the same problem on a job once," Sarah said.
"And what did you do?"
"I used a device I like to call the Flying Hoop."
"Please explain."
"As its name implies, it's essentially a hoop made of composite materials with an attached balloon connected to a canister of helium. We hook the line to it, place it around the chimney, and once we're done, we use a remote control to activate the gas and inflate the balloon. It will then fly off the roof and come to us."
"Sounds great, really, but where are we going to get our hands on one?"
"I just happen to have one handy, Chuck."
"I didn't notice anything when we browsed through your gear."
"It's hidden in my luggage." She went to her room and returned with an armful of what could only be parts for the Flying Hoop. She quickly assembled it and proudly displayed it to the three men. "The balloon is big enough to lift a twenty meter line over thirty feet in the air," she said.
"Ingenious," Chuck said admiringly. "It will be a simple matter to reel it in once it's off the roof."
"Disguising the helium canister as hair spray is also a nice touch," Morgan said.
"Fortunately, I have two canisters, and we can use one for the rehearsal."
"No, we better save both for the actual op."
"Well, it's your call."
"Don't get me wrong, we'd rehearse with it, if only we had more of these," he said, hefting one of the helium canisters.
-o-
Casey soon arrived and listened with interest as they explained the revised plan to him. He had to give Sarah kudos for her input. She might be a thief, but she was helping a lot. Afterwards, he went behind the chalet and found a convenient vantage point, where he unfolded a camp chair and sat down, taking a stopwatch from a pocket.
Sarah once again shot the line with spectacular accuracy. She and Chuck then attached their harnesses to it and made their way to the gable roof. From there they entered the study, just like they had done during previous practice runs. Chuck showed Sarah once more how to use his gadget to deal with the electronic lock on the safe. Once it completed the simulation, Sarah allowed some time for the rest of the safe cracking and the recovery of its contents. Exiting the study, heading back to the roof and from there to beyond the fence was child's play for the agent and the thief. As she had suggested, they skipped inflating the hoop recovery balloon, instead as long as that task would normally take to their time, which was quite impressive, as Casey told them when he finally checked the stopwatch.
Morgan made lunch and they all used the opportunity to discuss their performance so far. Every contingency had been considered and plans made accordingly. Casey's phone rang and he immediately answered it.
"Well?"
"Good news, Carmichael. My people told me that the mark just left with his wife for the airport."
"Fantastic. It's still early, so we have all the time in the world to check and prepare our gear. We go in tonight."
"Say exactly when and I'll have my team in position."
"I was thinking about going in around midnight or so, give the house staff time to go to bed."
"Better yet, I suggest we wait until after one or two," Bryce piped up. "If we go in at two, we'll have it wrapped up by two thirty at the latest."
"Huh? We won't spend half an hour in there," Sarah objected.
"I was referring to the entire operation."
"Oh."
"What do you say, Casey?"
"I say we're good to go, Carmichael."
-o-
It was 0130 hours. Chuck, Sarah and Bryce were just inside the treeline behind the mark's chalet. Casey had his team deployed to provide covering fire if needed. Morgan was back at the base, monitoring the communications and the feeds from his team mates' lipstick cameras.
Sarah pulled her mask down to cover her face. "Let's rock and roll," she said.
"Do the honors."
She shouldered the launcher and took careful aim. The grappling hook shot out and flew true, functioning as designed. Chuck secured their end of the line around a sturdy tree trunk. They both clipped their harnesses to the line and soon they were on the roof. There, he helped Sarah remove the hook from the chimney, replacing it with the Flying Hoop, to which the line was secured. He then shot the hook, minus the line, back to where Bryce was waiting to retrieve it.
Just like they had practiced so many times, they stayed clear of the cameras and reached the study window. Working together, they unbolted it from its frame, sliding it out on the rods they replaced the bolts with. Chuck took a couple of connected gas cylinders from his pack, stuck the end of the hose inside and turned the valve. A light mist filled the room, making the laser beams clearly visible.
"Ladies first," he whispered.
She nodded and slipped inside. Avoiding the first beam was like going under a limbo pole. She then knelt and crawled under another beam. To get up again she arched her back, moving her body between two more beams. Once she reached the wall where the massive bookcase stood, it was easier going and she made it to the cabinet without any trouble. Chuck gave her the thumbs up and entered as well. He had fewer beams to avoid in order to reach the massive ornately carved desk. He ducked under it and proceeded to open the computer's side panels. Stealing a glance at Sarah he saw that she was already working on bypassing the electronic lock. By the time he was done replacing the network card in the computer with one of his own design that incorporated a sophisticated bug, Sarah had already disabled the alarm interface and made short work of the electronic lock and was using a lightweight handheld X-ray generator connected to a tablet computer to view the interior works of the safe. It was way better than using a stethoscope or drilling to insert a borescope. This way she could see the tumblers as they fell into place one by one.
"Open sesame," she muttered as an audible click announced that the combination had been found. Chuck stood guard as she opened the safe door and started stuffing everything, cash, jewelry, documents, digital storage media and the like into a large pouch. "Come to Mama," she said as she took a beautiful diamond necklace. And then… "Oh!"
"Sarah, is anything wrong?"
"No. But I recognize this piece. It was stolen from the Iraqi National Museum back in 2003. The sonofabitch must have bought it in the black market. It'll have to be returned." She carefully packed it and stowed it in the pouch with the rest of the loot.
"How much longer, guys?" Bryce queried.
"I'm done," Chuck replied.
"So am I," Sarah added.
"Then let's get outta here."
"Pump out some more gas and let's go."
They retraced their steps back to the window. No alarms rang and no security people burst through the door. The window was bolted back in place and Chuck and Sarah easily made it back to the roof. The pouches containing their haul were sent across first. They followed and finally Sarah activated the balloon of the Flying Hoop. After Bryce reeled it in, they got in the car and drove off, Casey and his team following behind.
TO BE CONTINUED
P.S.: Rant for LOLs: Every red blooded male wonders WHAT THE HELL WERE THOSE PIXELS IN FRONT OF SARAH DOING? THEY HAD ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS BEING THERE!