Don't own Chuck

Chuck dressed as Sheshenko walked to the hatch and looked down at Anatoly and Stefan waiting for him at the bottom. He was perplexed because Igor had told him that he couldn't send them yet here they were. The Director seemed adamant on the phone but had things changed. Chuck had no way of knowing and when he got down the ladder and was about to ask them about the change of heart two men appeared.

"Sir, we're here from the organization you asked to meet. If your party will please follow us there's a helicopter standing by ready to take you."

"Pree-vyet," said Chuck as he motioned them to show them the way. Chuck looked at Stefan and Anatoly as they followed the men wanting to bring them up to speed but that too would have to wait. As they were walking Stefan received notice of a text message and Chuck gave him a look as he checked it.

"I'm sorry I should've told you this when we met but your phones must be left here," said the one man as he held out his hand. "I'm sure you understand for security purposes."

"Certainly, I left mine on my plane and I don't know why my friend brought his," said Chuck as he glanced over to Stefan. "Give the man your phone."

"Sorry, I... well I..."

"It was that flight attendant, wasn't it," said Anatoly bailing Stefan out. "You gave her your number and now she's seeing if you're available for one of your hook ups. What did I tell you? I told you that you need to stop these one-night stands and get your head on right."

"Life is short and especially short in this line of work so why should I tie myself down to one woman. Besides, we're on the road all the time what kind of family can I hope to have? Children who hate me and a wife who will ignore me. I think I'm better off the way I am right now."

"Will you two please stop embarrassing yourselves in front of our hosts? Just give your phones then let's go we're wasting my time," said Chuck as he took them. "Here and please don't pass on what you heard. This isn't the way I normally run my business."

"Yes Sir, of course," said the man as they walked over to a waiting chopper. The rotors were turning when they got there so they had to keep their heads down as they boarded. Sitting across from them were other men and one of them was the man who'd been with them on the flight from Moscow.

"Didn't I see you on our flight from Moscow," said Stefan as he tried to strike up a conversation. "Stefan Metrohken," he said as he put out his hand but the man just looked at it then looked away. Chuck looked at the man too then flashed and realized who and why he was on the chopper with them.

"Stefan leave Mr. Kuznetsov alone. He's on important business for our friends but I'm not sure that business is for the Interior Ministry, or am I wrong," said Chuck. The man looked at him with an mouth open.

"But how do you... Have we met before because if we have I don't remember it," said the man as he was taken aback. "I don't think we have, have we?"

"No, my dear Vasali, we haven't but I know you and I know where you work among other things. Just before coming here, Stefan and Anatoly, my friends, were arguing about being in a relationship. A relationship can be a wonderful thing wouldn't you agree?"

"I guess so," said Vasali as he looked around the helicopter. Everyone was watching and listening to him and Chuck. "I really haven't thought about it."

"You should. Yes, it's a wonderful thing for everyone except for a spy. For a spy, a significant other can be a weakness... something someone could exploit. Take for instance you live in that nice housing complex with Ivana and your three children."

"How do you know these things? Have you been following me? Look, you know who my boss is so if anything happens..."

"Nothing is going to happen to them so don't get excited. You should be content that someone is watching over them along with your mistress. Really being involved with your secretary isn't very original. However, I'm afraid you've stuck your foot in it when you accessed my personnel file."

"What do you mean 'stuck my foot in it'," said Vasali as he pulled his briefcase up near him as if he were protecting it. He couldn't help feel that Sheshenkov had x-ray vision and was looking at what was inside.

"You don't have to tell me. I know you've got it with you and that our friends want to check me out before we meet. I'd do the same if I were them but by accessing that file you put your finger in one of Director Trotski's little mouse traps. One of these days I'm going to have to kill him."

"What do you mean trap? I had one of my underlings get the file for me. He knows better to keep his mouth closed."

"That's what they all say," said Anatoly. "If I had a kopek for every time I heard some fool say that I'd be living in my dacha on the outskirts of Moscow."

"The bottom line is Igor by now has been to your office and has your friend in custody. He'll ask him nicely first then not so nicely after that and if your man has a family... well I've already explained to you how that will be used against him. Igor will turn his whole like inside out then yours."

"Then what am I supposed to do?"

"I think you need to listen to me and listen very carefully. I'm not guaranteeing anything but if you do you just might get out of this with only acceptable losses."

"Acceptable losses? What do you mean by that?"

"Dear Vasali, nature has built us with redundancies in case of loss. That's why we have two legs, two arms, two kidneys, two eyes and so on. If we lose one we have the other to fall back on. In your case you have done it in your life. You have a wife and a mistress. You may have to make a choice which to keep and which to throw under the bus but let's not talk about this right now."

"Gentleman, we're almost there," said one of the men who'd escorted them to the chopper.

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Beckman was sitting in her office trying to monitor the evolving situation in Montenegro and Moldova as best as she could, but things were going in all sorts of directions. She received word back from her men on the plane that Chuck was met by two Russian and from their description she immediately knew they were Anatoly and Stefan then they were all taken away to meet a helicopter.

"That's what Roan meant we he said Chuck seemed to be looking for someone and it wasn't just one," said Beckman to herself as she hung up the phone. "But why the Sheshenkov disguise again? He's got something up his sleeve. I hate him when he does this crap to me."

"I may know," said her Major as he walked in. "There's been a world-wide search on who Colonel Juri Sheshenkov is. I think Chuck is using his cover to flush out who all the members of this circle are."

"Actually, that does make sense. Think about for a moment, he gets all the members of this circle, or whatever they call themselves, agitated then he arranges a visit. Their next move would be to try to find out information on him."

"But why not let one member do the searching? I don't understand can't they see that this could be used to trace back to them."

"Desperate times, call for desperate measures... they were already agitated about recovering this ledger then Chuck hits them with a visit. They think they are anonymous but Chuck shows he knows their location and how to contact them. They aren't thinking right now they're reacting. I want a list of names put together of all the possible members of this organization."

"Are we calling them members" asked the Major. "I've seen some on them and they are people in high places."

"I think we have to be a little cautious right now and just call them 'possible' members. But if I'm right there will be more to come out of Moldova which will help his cross reference them and identify them. I just hope Chuck realizes what he's done. He's stirred up the hornet's nest and is now walking into the middle of it."

"Ma'am, do I need to remind you that you sent Colonel Casey and Mary there and they don't know Chuck will be there soon... if he's not there now," said the Major as he checked his watch. "Shouldn't we try to contact them and give them a heads up?"

"We couldn't even if I wanted to because as soon as they entered country they went dark. We won't see them until the mission is done. My hope is they see Chuck and company then somehow hook up with him."

"Well, we know from our last pass over that the Colonel and Mary haven't launched any sort of attack as of yet. But there should be something we can do? We could notify the Moldovan government and let them pick them up then we can get them out later?"

"No, remember we have no way of communicating with the Colonel and Mary. If they see troops headed their way they'll think their cover is blown then they'll try to shoot their way out. Who knows how many casualties there would be and our diplomatic relations would take a major hit in the region. Not to mention the stink State would make of it. No, it's better if we let things ride for now.

"I see what you mean," said the Major as he thought for a moment. "I can see how that would cause them to have an adverse reaction."

"Adverse reaction? You mean like they'd line them up in front of a firing squad type of adverse reaction. I'd call that more 'terminal' than 'adverse'. Go get that list of names put together and bring it to me. I'm sure I'll recognize a few of them and tell Connie I could use more coffee."

"Yes Ma'am, right away," said the Major as he turned and left. The General was left there looking down at her empty coffee cup but that wasn't what she was thinking about.

"I just hope Chuck knows what he's gotten himself into. These people are going to be like a pact of angry wolves and he'd better not go in like a lamb or they'll tear him to shreds."

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Mary and Casey were sitting around the campsite waiting for the chopper to come in so Mary could detonate the explosives she'd planted. After that their plan was to make a run for it. However, Casey was having second thoughts about Mary's plan when in the distance they heard a helicopter coming in their direction.

"I don't want to rain on anyone's parade and I like a good firework's show like the next guy but that doesn't really fulfill our mission, does it?"

"Of course it does, what are you talking about. Do you hear that," said Mary as she got up and looked towards the sky. "I think our bird is coming. Can I borrow your binoculars?"

"I was using the scope off of my Barrett. You can use it but make sure it's got the safety on or you're liable to bring down the chopper before we want it brought down."

"Does it really matter," said Mary as she pulled out a pair of binoculars from her bag. "Before you accuse me of dementia I knew I had them I jut didn't feel like digging them out"

"So, what are saying? You wanted me to dig out mine for you? Geez, thanks. Any way what I was saying is you make the place go boom that doesn't mean we've got everyone. There could be stragglers that will survive and then what? We have to keep an eye over our shoulder waiting for them to try to get even?"

"Okay, I hear what you're saying so what do you want to do? Do you want us to go down and tap all of the survivors?"

"Would that be such a bad idea?" said Casey as they chopper passed overhead then dropped down to the village below.

"Let me think about it," said Mary as she watched the chopper hover for a moment before settling down. "Okay, it's showtime," she said as she held the detonator in her one hand and the binoculars in the other. Casey was down in the prone position looking through the scope of his .50 cal.

"Crap! Hold up," he yelled. "Don't push that button."

"What's the matter now? Do you want to go down and ask them politely if they will roll over and play dead? Is this what happens when you live in walls for too long? It's the wall paper glue, isn't it?"

"No," growled Casey. "That's Chuck down there or don't you recognize your own son? Look again if you don't believe me."

"Crap, you're right. What's he doing here? He's supposed to be in L.A. with the girls," said Mary as she watched him walk away from the chopper and was greeted by a man in a gray Armani suit who shook his hand.

"I don't know why he's here but he brought the Red contingent with him. That's Stefan and Anatoly his commie buddies which explains the garb he's wearing. If he's doing the Kolonel again things are going to get really crazy."

"What do you mean by that? I just don't see what he hopes to accomplish by walking in there," said Mary as they hear an ATV in the distance.

"You'll see. Come on we need to clean this mess up and wait for that patrol to pass us by. When night falls we can go down and ask him what's going on.

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A few hours before in Moscow Igor pulled up at Zhitnaya street number 16 in front of the offices of the Russian Internal Ministry. He got out of his car and standing there waiting for him was Lieutenant Colonel Stanasolovski in uniform. She saluted him as he approached her and smiled but he just looked her over.

"I didn't know if you wanted me in uniform or not and I called your office but you were already gone. Your secretary told me just to hurry over here so I came as I was dressed."

"For now, you're fine the way you are and as a matter of fact dressed like that you'll make my visit seem more ominous which is what I'm going for. However, as soon as we're done here you need to change out of your uniform and put on civilian clothes."

"So, what am I to do try to go unnoticed?" asked Imma. She didn't know what Igor had on his mind and that bothered her.

"My dear, you could wear sack cloth and you'd be noticed. Now follow me there's someone we need to talk to," said Igor as he held the door open for her.

"Chivalry is still alive even in the clandestine services," said Imma as she walked past him into the atrium of the building.

"I was trained well, now come along," said Igor as they walked straight through the metal detector causing alarms to go off as he headed for the elevators. A security agent stepped in front of them as they arrived at the doors.

"You know who I am and you don't want to get in my way," said Igor and the man stepped aside. "You can call your people upstairs and tell them I'm on my way up."

"Can I tell them who you want to see," asked the guard as the doors to the elevator opened and this time Imma held the door for Igor.

"Nyet," said Igor bluntly then he got in the elevator and the doors closed behind him. Imma looked him over as he stood there. "What? With that one word I've sent terror throughout the whole of this building. Bureaucrats every one of them," said Igor with a tone of disgust.

They rode the elevator up into the inner sanctum of the ministry getting off near the top floor. There to meet them was as group of executive assistants sent to find out why Trotski was there and who was in trouble.

"Sir, I'm sorry but the minister isn't in right now. He's at a meeting in the Kremlin and he askes if you would relay to him the purpose of your visit or if you could please come back later?"

"Nyet," repeated Igor as he pushed the men out of their way. "You people sound like a gaggle of geese. Just get out of my way and stay out of it," he said as he walked down the aisle passing by cubicle after cubicle. The people in them kept their eyes down at their desk even if they had nothing to do praying and hoping he'd pass them by.

"This is the one, Viktor Manovich," read Igor off the nametag outside the cubicle. "Where is this man?"

"You," said Imma singling out the man in the cubicle next to Manovich's. "We're looking for the man who works at this desk. Did he come into work today and if he did where is he?" The man started to stutter. "Speak up, we don't have all day."

"I don't know," said the man. "I really don't. He was here a few minutes ago then he just sort of disappeared when you arrived."

"Sort of disappeared you say... he's hiding and I know where you men love to hide," said Imma as she looked around. "He's in there," she said as she went straight for the men's room. She tried the door but it was locked.

"Watch out," she said as she kicked it in. "Manovich," she yelled, "zip it up and come out. You don't want to make me come in there and drag you out."

"Geez lady, you could scare the crap out of someone," said Viktor as he buckled his belt. "Is it against the law now to use the bathroom?"

"That's Colonel to you," said Igor as he flashed him his badge. "Passing state secrets is and it's a capital offense. Do I need to tell you what the punishment for that is?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said Viktor. He looked around for support from his co-workers, but on hearing the offense they all quickly melted away leaving him there alone with Igor and Imma. "Can we please go into our conference room and talk about this? I think there must be some misunderstanding."

"I think that would be wish but there is no misunderstanding," said Igor as they followed Viktor down past the cubicles and into a large room they used for assemblies.

"It has to be because I would never betray Rodina, my country... never. You have to believe me. I was a young pioneer and I love my country and..."

"Then explain this," said Igor as he showed Viktor a printout from a log. "This is the IP address from your computer and it shows you logging onto our classified server then you downloaded a classified file. Do you deny that?"

"No, but it's not what it looks like and that's all I can say. I'm sorry but I too have state secrets I must protect and this is one of them."

"Then you can protect them from Lubyanka. I'm arresting you on the charge of treason then we'll go from there."

"But you can't... I have a family," said Viktor but neither Imma or Igor were moved. "No, you can't. I was only doing my job. Can't you understand that?"

"If you want to avoid some unpleasant experiences then you need to tell me what's going on otherwise my hands are tied," said Igor. While Igor was putting the fear of God in Viktor, Imma's phone rang telling her she'd received a new message. Igor turned back at her giving her a look.

"I'm sorry but you should've really warned me you were going to start interrogations here and I would've switched it off," said Imma as she looked at the heading. "Any way it's from Stefan."

"I've been looking for that idiot and his idiot twin. I hate to ask this because I think I know but where are they?"

"They were on an Air Moldova plane so I'd guess that was where they were heading," said Imma. On the mention of Moldova, both Viktor and Igor's attention piqued but for different reasons. "What's so important about Moldova?"

"I may have to arrange for a firing squad for three now. I told them explicitly not to go there and what do they do? The exact opposite."

"Don't blame Anatoly. Stefan has a problem with reading signals even when they're obvious," said Imma as she shoved her phone in Viktor face. "I remember seeing this face in the lobby. It he the reason you can't answer the Director's questions?"

"I... I don't know," said Viktor as a look of terror came on his face and he tried to look away. "I believe he might be an undersecretary here or something like that. I think his name is Vasali Kuznelsov."

"You think," said Imma. "Drushka, which should you be more afraid of a tiger or a wolf?" Viktor didn't know what to say so he just shook his head. "The answer is simple. You fear the one next to you. My dear Viktor, shall we start this questioning again?"