Don't own Chuck
The man on the elevator turned over in his head what could have gotten Oscar so worked up and none of what he could think of with was good. When he got off the elevator he immediately found one of his friends in the lobby so he grabbed him first by walking over and tapping him on the shoulder.
"If you're supposed to be the lookout for the rest you're doing a lousy job. Where are the other guys? We need to round everyone up and report in Oscar wants to see us straight away."
"The other guys are in the bar having the breakfast of champions and I'm here just admiring the view. I can't believe how many gorgeous women there are staying in this place."
"And most of them are well out of your price range. Come on Casanova we need to regroup and head up to see Oscar."
They walked into the bar and there they found the men sitting in a corner booth each with a beer in front of them. The man shook his head as he and the other guy walked over to them.
"I hate to rain on your parade but Oscar wants us up in his room in half an hour," said the man as he stood over the top of them. "Boy, you guys believe in getting an early start. Come on Oscar wants us up in his room pronto."
"What's that all about? Can't we at least finish our drinks? What's up with Oscar anyway? Does he have a bur under his saddle? I thought we were supposed to be casing this place first."
"Casing doesn't mean you have to go through a case and looking at you guys I'd say that's already history. But as to why I haven't got a clue just he wants us up in his room so down them then let's go before he gets pissed. Has anyone seen White? Oscar wants him in this meeting too."
"I think I saw him walking out of the Casino earlier. He might've gone to the morgue to pay his respects to his partner or just make sure he's really there."
"I doubt that," said one of the man. "White only cares about himself. I'd say he reminds me of snake but that would be speaking bad about snakes," said the man as he took a sip from his beer.
"Hey, what's going on there," said one of the men as he pointed to the policemen in uniform and another man that had plain clothes written all over him outside the bar area talking with the people from the hotel.
"I think that might be the bur you were talking about under Oscar's saddle you mentioned earlier," said the man who'd come down to round everyone up. "I wish I could overhear what they're talking about. Okay, there's a new plan guys, just sit back down and drink those beers. I don't think we want to go out together past those people while they're talking. Let's wait until the powwow is over then we'll leave and go up."
"Are you sure about that? I mean do we really have to wait this out. Oscar does have a tempter and you don't think he'll get mad as us if we're late. I for one don't want to piss him off not with the way he acts when he's mad."
"I could be wrong but I think his anger is what's gotten us in this mess. Maybe if we wait White will show back up and we can use that as our excuse. Wait a minute... what's that he's showing that blonde woman in that bag."
"It looks like a pen to me. That looks like the same type of pen they have at the reception desk and in our rooms. I wonder what's that all about? Did someone write a letter of complaint about the police?"
"No, you idiot. Can't you see the liquid in the bag with the pen? It looks pretty red to me. If I were to guess I'd say someone was killed with that."
"You mean he was crossed out or maybe got his eye dotted," said the one man as everyone turned and looked at him. "Sorry, if I tried to use a little levity to lighten the mood a bit. I mean it's not like I said this just goes to prove the pen is mightier than the sword."
"I think you just did and please stop while you're ahead. Okay enough with the puns it looks like they're leaving so we can get out of here. Come on let's go."
The men all got up and filed past Sarah and Margot as they headed towards the elevator. But neither women seemed to notice them. They were almost at the elevator when White came walking in through the front doors.
"There's White now," said one of the men. The man started to motion for him to come over but the man next to him stopped him.
"No, you'll just draw attention to us and to him. You guys go one up and I'll round White up then meet you in Oscar's room."
The men got on the elevator as the other man walked across the lobby to White. White seemed preoccupied and was looking around like he was searching for someone or someplace.
"Have you lost something?" asked the man. White almost jumped out of his skin. "I didn't mean to scare you but we need to go up Oscar is waiting to see us. Something's gone down and he wants to talk to everyone."
"What do you mean something's happened?" said White. He intentionally kept quite about what he already knew. "Is that why the police are everywhere outside?"
"I don't know but they were in here too. I can only think this has something to do with why Oscar wants to talk to us. We saw the police talking to the people from the hotel and the cops held up a bloody pen like the ones they use here."
"I wonder if he didn't do it," said White not realizing he'd spoken out loud. The man next to him gave him a perplexed look which quickly passed as the man thought.
"Wonder who did what? If you're talking about Oscar... well you don't know him like we do and he does have a temper."
"No, I was talking about the Major. I saw him go out earlier but he was with that woman from the other night... the redhead. Let's go up and see what we can find out," said White as he felt the phone in his pocket. Either way he'd have something to report.
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Chuck waited all day for Twelve to come back but he never did. However, that didn't seem to worry him much to the amazement of Anatoly and Stefan. When night came they took turns looking out the peephole in the door and out the windows to see what was going on in the street. But all seemed quiet which made it only worse.
"Are you sure they're going to want to talk to you?" said Anatoly. "Let's think this out from their perspective. You come in here out of the blue and demand to speak to them."
"Add to that they don't think anyone knows who they are and they want to keep it that way which makes you a liability."
"But they also didn't think anyone knew where they were meeting and us being here proves that \ they were wrong. They have to be wondering now if they don't have a mole among them and if they have someone's talking..."
"They'll want to know who it was and how much he's told the rest of the world about them. I can see how that would make them nervous but nervous people make silly mistakes."
"He's right like shooting the messenger," said Stefan. He caught movement outside but thought it was a stray dog at first searching garbage cans for supper.
"No, they're going to want to talk to me and you're right they'll want to know how I found out about their location. The longer they take before they show up outside the better. It means they're thinking out their options. Excuse me Stefan but is there something going on outside?" asked Chuck. He'd noticed Stefan turning his head a few times just to stare out the window before joining back in the conversation.
"I don't know. I saw something that looked like a shadow moving outside but it could've been a large dog I guess. They have bears around here, don't they?"
"I guess it's possible but doubtful," said Chuck as he got up and looked outside from behind the curtains. "If it is one I guess it could've wandered in from Romania. They aren't very well liked over there."
"Better bears than wolves with their green eyes glowing in the dark and their sharp white fangs ready to rip you to shreds. You know theirs never one of them."
"You my friend are the product of years if not centuries of Slavic folktales. Your Babushka probably told you the stories about the baba yaga," said Chuck. Anatoly gave him a look. "Bayu Bayushki Bayu. Do not lie down near the edge of the bed, The grey wolf will come and grab you by your tiny side He'll grab you by your tiny side and drag you to the forest..."
"Yes, and that's enough. She was a scary old woman who liked to scare the daylights out of me with her stories. She used to put salt over the widow sills and the doorway into her room to keep the baba yaga out. If you knew the price of salt back then you'd know my parents weren't very happy with her."
"But she made you honey cakes so she couldn't have been that bad," said Stefan as he took the cap off the vodka bottle and took a hit then passed it to Anatoly who took a hit too. He started to pass the bottle to Chuck, but Chuck went over to the door and put his hand on the knob.
"What's going..." Anatoly started to say but Chuck put his finger up to his mouth telling him to be quiet then he opened the door suddenly reached out in the dark then yanked a man inside.
"K chertu... What the heck," said Anatoly. "We could use a little advanced warning next time," he said as he stood over the man who'd landed face down on the floor. Stefan grabbed the bottle from him.
"Let me take that before you waste it cracking Viktor over the head with it," said Stefan as Viktor rolled over and tried to get up.
"I'm sorry but I had to make sure I wasn't seen coming in here. You have to help me, I'm in deep trouble with the people here. They found out that Trotski came to my office this morning in the Federal ministry and took away the man I used to get your file. I heard them talking and they think I've been compromised..."
"So now you've become a liability to them and they want to tie up loose ends," said Chuck as he turned away trying to think for a moment about what to do.
"I guess we could hide him out here for a now. Then we could try to smuggle him out of town with us when we go. However, after that he'll need some sort of witness protection and a good one judging by these people's reach."
"Yes, anything you want. I'll do it. Just don't let them take me," said Viktor as he begged but as he was speaking there was a knock at the front door. They'd been so busy with Viktor that no one had been watching out the windows.
"In the back now," said Chuck as he went to the door and asked who it was. He heard the voice on the other side and immediately recognized it as Twelve's.
"It's me. May I come in for a moment," said Twelve as Chuck opened the door. "I'm sorry for barging in like this," he said as he pushed his way in with two other armed men following behind him.
"Do come on in," said Chuck as he closed the door after them. Twelve started to speak but Chuck cut him off. "I think the man you're looking for is in the back through there," he said as he pointed the way for them.
"Thank you," said Twelve as he nodded to his men who disappeared into the back. They heard a scuffle then watched as they dragged an unconscious Viktor out the front door. "That was much easier than I'd expected. I guess you're wondering what's going on?"
"No, not really," said Chuck as he cut him off again. "Whatever that was, it was your business and none of mine. I am getting tired of waiting for your Mr. One to make up his mind and you can tell him that in those very words. Actually, I insist."
"I don't know if that's such a good idea," said Twelve as he looked Chuck over. Sheshenkov was every bit of a cold SOB that he'd been told he was and possibly more.
"Oh, I think it is. Now I've done you a favor helping you recover your man. Now you owe me... us one. This is what I'd like. I want you to go to that tavern and bring us back a bottle of Johnny Walker Black."
"I'll see what I can do," said Twelve then he left. Anatoly and Stefan looked at Chuck and shook their heads then they went off to a separate corner where they could talk.
"What was that? Chuck gave that guy up without lifting a finger. That didn't sound like the Chuck I used to know."
"I know what your saying. Something is different about him. I can't put my finger on it but he's acting... well he's acting like one of us."
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As soon as the sunset and the stars came out Mary and Casey worked their way down from the hills towards the town. They had to dodge the patrols and worked their way around the sentinels. Mary took the lead at first because she'd already been in the town once. After they entered the town they made their way from building to building and everything was going on well... maybe too well.
"Watch out John," Mary said as she grabbed him by the shoulder and yanked him back. "I know you want to take over lead but this isn't a dance and I've been here before. Look," she said as she pointed to IR eyes that cut across the alleyway then showed him the camera above looking down.
"They don't have enough personnel to cover everywhere so they set up this IR tripwires in choke points and placed cameras above..."
"I get it, the alarm goes off then someone back at base can see who or what it is so they don't waste time chasing dogs or other ferial animals. Not a half-bad idea actually."
"I'm glad you approve. They also get a picture of the intruder then use fascial recognition to see who they're dealing with."
"That would mean they're tied into... well everywhere. Who are these people?" said Casey as they heard people running in the street and armed men appeared in front of them coming in their direction. They quickly disappeared into the shadows.
"You sure you didn't miss one of those trip wires?" said Casey as they ducked for cover. "Maybe the camera was on and we didn't know it?"
"Shush, I don't know but I don't think so," she said as the armed men walked towards them. She pulled a stiletto from her boot and Casey pulled out his K-bar. "They need to go down without a sound."
"I'm on this. I'll take the one on the right and you can have the one of the left," said Casey as he crouched down like a large cat ready to pounce on it's unsuspecting prey. They were both ready as the men approached them until they could hear what they were saying.
"Where do you think he could've gone too? I mean why are we here. You don't really think he could've gotten all the way down here without being seen, do you?"
"I don't make the rules I just follow them and they told us to come down here and clear this area. So, until I get told differently that's exactly what I'm going to do. You should keep your trap shut and your head down if you want to make it out of here."
"I'm just saying the guy would've had to have gotten by a lot of guards to get here and surely one of the cameras would've picked him up."
"You just want to get back inside so you can watch 'Dancing with the Stars'. Can't you see that's all fixed? It's not about who can dance the best but who the public likes."
"You're just mad because your couple got eliminated and so what if I want to get back to see the elimination round. I need my people to move up to the next round."
"You'd better not be calling in to vote. You know we're under radio silence here and that goes for all telephone calls too. I don't know why I have to tell you this."
"Awh take a chill. I know that I wasn't born yesterday besides I've got everything hooked up with my cousin, Bob. I worked it all out with him before we shipped out."
"I hate to ask this but there's not a lot to do here so I'll bite. How did you work this out with your cousin Bob? Is he going to vote for you?"
"That is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard. No, I'd have to leave him a power-of-attorney then trust he'd vote the way I wanted and to be honest Bob is a little dishonest."
"Look around the people you're with. Okay, I don't know why I'm still interested but all right, so he's not voting for you then how is he helping you out? What other option do you have?"
"There's another one. You see when he gets off work from the Buy More he records the episode on his DVR so when I come home I'll be able to watch it then call in my vote. See, it's easy. I bet you wouldn't have come up with something like that?"
"No, I wouldn't have which just goes to prove you should be working at the Buy More. You're a waste... I mean a waste working here of course."
"Thank you. That's about the nicest thing you've ever said to me."
"And I meant every word," said the man. They were almost at where Casey and Mary lay in waiting when the one's radio started to squawk.
"Hotel come in... hotel come in. Request current location over. Request current location," radioed someone. They were close enough that Mary and Casey could hear them and the man on the radio. John wanted to jump but Mary pushed him back down.
"No, not while he's on the radio. We need to wait until he's off and has given the all clear or we'll have a swarm of armed people dropping in on us." Casey just grunted but Mary was right.
"Home base this is Hotel over. We're currently clearing a back alley behind the pharmacy. We've cleared the alleys next to the bank and the post office over."
"Okay, good, you can wrap it up there and report back into the command center. Twelve located our missing man in the house of our guests so the search has been called off."
"Roger that. You say the search has been called off and we're to return to the command center," said the one as the other man smiled from ear to ear.
"Roger that Base Camp out," said the voice then the man put away his radio.
"You don't have to look like the cat who ate the canary," said the one man as they started walking back down the alley to the street. "Why is your cousin recording the episodes if you're watching it here off the satellite?"
"I need to make sure they didn't change any of the moves," said the man as they walked out of the alley then disappeared from sight. Casey and Mary walked out from cover looking both directions then started heading for the street.
"Well, isn't that a fine mess. I was already and then this happens. It's kind of a bummer... like being all dressed up ready to go out then having everything called off at the door."
"Come on there will be opportunities for you to scratch that itch."
"Oh, you're just trying to make me feel better."