Don't own Chuck
It was late and Chuck was still in bed. Sunlight was shining through the window that woke him up. There was a gentle Mediterranean breeze blowing through the bedroom from an open window and somewhere outside he could hear people laughing from the beach below. He yawned and stretched then rolled over to put his arm around Sarah only to find she was already up and taking care of Bunny.
"Well good morning sleepy head," she said as she laid Bunny in her stroller. "I was going to let you sleep in for a little while longer but I forgot the window open."
"No problem the breeze feels nice and invigorating. But what's going on with Sam and Molly I expected them to be chomping at the bit to ask about going to the circus. Besides morning isn't morning without Sam coming and jumping in bed with us." Sarah laughed.
"I know but I think they were threatened that if they wanted to go to the circus they had to behave," said Sarah with a smile. Chuck looked at her perplexed.
"But you and I have to go even if they do or don't. That's what we agreed or has something changed," said Chuck as he started to get out of bed and put his feet on the cool marble floor.
"No, nothing has changed... I know that but they don't. Remember Sweetie, if you know all the conns you'll never be a sucker," said Sarah. She could see the look on his face. "I see you disapprove…"
"I didn't say that. Can we leave it at I've got some grave doubts? This is our daughter and technically your sister we're talking about. I think Dr. Spock might have some problems with your parenting skills."
"And he never met our Sam. Come on let's go plan out what we're doing today? I'm for going to the beach and letting the girls play on the sea shore. They can add French seashells to their collection."
"But we can go to the beach at home," said Chuck as he put on a robe and walked out with Sarah. Everyone was on the balcony having breakfast.
"Right this way," said Sam as got up and pulled his chair out for him. As she did that Molly grabbed the carafe with coffee and poured him a cup.
"Here's your coffee, Chuck," Molly said as she placed it in front of him. "Sarah would you like some coffee or more juice?" She went ahead and poured her some orange juice then sat the glass in front of her.
"There are some croissants we saved for you. You have your choice of plain to jelly filled," said Sam as she moved the tray over near them.
"Okay, what have you done with my daughter?" said Chuck as he smiled taking a sip of coffee then picking up a pastry from the tray. "You know you two keep this up and a person could get used to this."
"I don't know what you mean," said Sam. "You act as is we're doing something special. This is the way we always behave," she said emphasizing the word 'behave'.
"Behave? Maybe in my dreams," said Chuck. Sam gave him an evil look. "Now that's normal. You know when I told you before I had reservations," said Chuck as he smiled over at Sarah. "… well screw Dr. Spock and his books."
"I know what you mean but all good things must come to an end. Girls, okay this is the deal... Chuck and I talked it over last night and… well we're going to take everyone to the circus tomorrow night…"
"Yuppie!" yelled Sam both girls were excited to go. Sam grabbed a croissant tossed it over to Molly then she grabbed one for herself. Everyone laughed.
"Now they've brought my daughter back," said Chuck as he leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. She smiled looking up at him with a jelly smile that was smeared across her mouth like a clown's painted smile.
"Let me finish," said Sarah. "You three are going to come back by taxi while Chuck and I stay behind to see some people."
"This suddenly sounds like work," said Sam as she looked at Sarah but shrugged her shoulders. "But if it means we get to go who am I to complain."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After Giovanni showed Casey around and had him meet everyone they separated so Giovanni could oversee the preparation of the tents and everything for the evenings performance as well as line up everything for their next leg of their European tour. Monaco would be the following day and there was still a lot that needed to be prepared. Casey went wandering around the circus on his own looking at the Zorro's trailer. He observed them as they left and went to the big top so he followed them doing a little snooping.
"Something isn't right here," he said to himself. He realized they might be behind to break-in but they lacked the resources and manpower to grab Roan. "So where would I hold Roan if I were in a circus."
Casey suddenly realized he had assumed the Zorros were responsible for grabbing Roan because one of the last messages Roan had gotten out was to look into them. However, he was having second thoughts. There was something else going on here but he wasn't sure what it was.
John watched the Zorros rehearse their act from behind the bleachers studying their technique. The more he observed them the more he was certain they were the ones who had broken into the crystal palace. They had the skills, know-how and technique. But if they did then why? They didn't act like traitors or what he'd expect a traitor to act like. Something wasn't adding up.
"What are you doing lurking about?" said a voice behind him. He turned around to find Alfredo standing there. "If you're interested in the girl you're wasting your time. She's already spoken for by our so-called circus manager, Giovanni. Even if neither will admit it."
"Why do you call him so-called? From everything I've seen he is the manager," said John. He'd picked up that there was no love lost between Alfredo and Giovanni. However, if Giovanni didn't like Alfredo why did he keep him around?
"He's a boy trying to do a man's job and he foolishly thinks he has the smarts to run all this," said Alfredo as he waved his hands around indicting everything. "The boy's still wet behind the ears and so my dear 'Angry Clown' the person you have to worry about is his father, Don Rodrigo. It would be in your best interest not to piss me off anymore. He and I go a longways back."
"I'll take that into consideration," said Casey deciding to take advantage of Alfredo's decision to chat. "So what's your deal around here? Are you some sort of king clown and the other little clowns are your mignons?"
"Mignons... I like that and yes it's something like that. We've worked together for a longtime and they look up to me as their leader because I take care of them."
"So you call what you do looking out for them?" said Casey. He shook his head then started to walk away but Alfredo stopped him.
"What's that supposed to mean? Hey, come back here," said Alfredo as he grabbed Casey's arm. Casey looked down at Alfredo's hand then looked back at him.
"If you want to keep that you'd better let go," said John as he looked down at the hand. "Do you take care of your people or do you take care of number one?"
"What are you guys doing in here," said Raul as he walked over to them. "We heard you guys arguing all the way in the center of the big top and you disrupting our practice session. Shouldn't you two be somewhere rehearsing too? Johann, I know you don't the rules around here but Alfredo you should. If you want to watch you're more than welcome, just keep the noise down we have to concentrate. The last thing we need is to make a mistake when we're up there," he said as he pointed to the high wire in the middle of the tent.
"Sorry for the disruption, I was just about to leave," said John as he pushed his way by Alfredo. By then both Marco and Rita had joined their brother.
"Raul, I need to talk to you that was the reason I came. I don't know why others are here," said Alfredo as he glanced over at Casey. Raul looked at Rita and Marco then walked off with Alfredo. Casey picked up that they were all concerned. This was another mystery under the big top. He couldn't help but believe that all these mysteries somehow all tied into the theft of the data from the Crystal palace. Casey was starting to get a headache as he turned to leave.
"Herr Casey, haven't we met somewhere before?" said Rita as she called to him. She wanted to see his reaction, but John was stoic. He turned back around to her shook his head.
"I don't believe so I think I'd remember you if we had and we travel in different circles so I'm going with no. Well, I need to go as your brother pointed out I have to get ready for this evening's performance."
"Really we've never met I wonder… well that's true we've never formally been introduced but I thought I saw you talking with Pierre in the Carlton before the police and Gendarme arrived. When everything went crazy there."
"Police… Gendarme, who do you think I am? You obviously have me confused with someone else. What do you think I am some sort of hitman," said John as he started to leave.
"I never said anything about anyone being killed. I just said the police and the Gendarme arrived," said Rita.
"I never said I hit anyone either. I just asked you if that was what you thought I was? I think we both need to be careful making assumptions."
Casey left but not before glancing over at Raul and Alfredo standing over away from everyone talking. They glanced back over in his direction then stopped talking waiting for him to disappear. "You two are up to something but I don't have time now to find out what it is right now but I will and on that you can bank on."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was late at night back in Langley and the General was becoming impatient. There was no reason to go home when she knew she'd never fall asleep. Not only was Roan missing on her watch but very soon she was going to have to go to the White House to brief the President and his Chief of Staff about what had happened at the Crystal Palace. There was no happy ending to this story and no way to put a spin on it where she came out clean so she went down to the situation room where she got herself coffee.
"General, I thought you'd be long gone by now," said her Major as he watched her make herself coffee. Getting coffee was an obvious excuse to come down and look around.
"I thought you'd be gone too," said the General as she took a sip from her cup. "Do we have something going on I don't know about… I mean other than the Colonel in Orléans?"
"I'm sending in a team to dig around patient records in a hospital outside of Baltimore. We traced back the disappearance of the Zorros' father to his last public appearance to a location near this hospital…"
"How do we know he was taken to this hospital?" said the General as she took another sip then watched on the monitor as their men began their incursion. She needed something and was anxious to get something... anything.
"I was getting to that," said the Major. He saw her look and understood she wanted him to get on with it. "Right, well after the circus performed there an ambulance was dispatched from this hospital and when we hacked into their security camera feeds we got a man who matches the old man's general description. The problem is their cameras are old and the lighting was too poor to get a hit from facial recognition..."
"So are we grasping for straw here? I'll give you that there seems some basis for this but we need to be careful we don't go running down rabbit holes."
"There's more. When we asked them about it at first they denied they'd sent an ambulance then when we pressured them they asked to see a warrant before they'd say anymore and only then with their lawyer present."
"It certainly does sound like suspicious behavior. But what do you hope to gain by breaking and entering? By now they've altered their records to cover up whatever's going on. We should bring in the administrator and have a little private chat."
"That was going to be my next move," said the Major. "Right now we're searching their records for any John Does they might have who were admitted around the same time."
"Good thinking, what better way to hold someone against their will. Dope them up then keep them unconscious and hide their identity. Unless someone knows where to look the person would never be found."
They watched as the team moved in tranq'd the security guards then went straight for patient records where they scanned everything. The operation went like clockwork and while the one team was doing that another one broke into the controlled substance locker in the pharmacy. The next morning police will be called in and think that some junkies broke into the hospital to get high and steal drugs to sell. No one will be the wiser as to the true nature of the break-in which was all right by the General.
"Major, I understand why you didn't tell me. You wanted to give me plausible deniability but I'm in so deep now that this would just be the icing on the cake. Once you get all those scanned copies bring them up to my office. We can go over them together after all two pairs of eyes are better than one."
"General, I can do this by myself… if you want. You should really go home and try to get some rest. You look tired..."
"I'll rest when the mission is over. Right now you're wasting our time and we've got a needle to find in a haystack," she said then she got herself a refill on her cup then left heading back up to her office.
"Finally a break," she said to herself as she got on the elevator and pressed the button for her floor. She took a sip from her coffee.
"Don't get too hopeful," she told herself. But she could feel this was a good lead. "You really do need some sleep," she told herself. She was tired but she also knew sleep or a restful sleep wouldn't come until Roan was back in DC. She felt like cursing him for making her feel the way she felt. It was highly unprofessional and she knew it but there was little she could do about it even if she wanted to.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Casey went back to the clowns' trailer where he got more of the cold shoulder from his fellow clowns. However, he could care less and busied himself getting ready by applying his white face and clown makeup like Herr Gesundheit had instructed him. While he was getting himself ready he noticed the other clowns around him. They didn't seem very people friendly not like a clown ought to be or at least what he'd grown up believing a clown should be. They were more like Professor Padraic Ratigan's thugs than Red Skelton's Freddie the Freeloader.
"Thugs, every last one of you guys," said Casey under his breath. "Where are you guys going?" he said to himself as he noticed two of them leaving. He turned his makeup mirror to see out a window without being observed. He saw them disappear near an area of the circus that was roped off and one Giovanni hadn't taken him to see.
[Not far away Raul and Alfredo were still talking]
"Okay you want to make the drop in the Marina. What's this no way out?" said Raul. He saw it for what it was a trap even if Alfredo denied it.
"No just think of it as a way to keep us both honest. From the Marina you can see any one coming or going so we won't be able to sneak up on each other. I'm tired of messing with you guys if you want to back out now I can turn this over to my boss but I have to warn you that you won't like his methods nor will your precious Papa so do we have a deal?"
"Hold up a minute, it's not our fault if you didn't come through with what you promised the last time. One more stunt like what you did back in Alexandria and you'll get you data device back in pieces…"
"Which will be exactly how you'll get your father back. Don't screw around with me as long as I have your old man I have the trump card here."
"I don't know about that all we need is to hang out a little bit longer and we'll see what your boss does to you. Something tells me he's not very happy right now and that talk about turning everything over to him is just a bluff."
"Do you want to see if it is? Believe me when I tell you that you don't want him to takeover because if he does… well things won't be pretty for anyone and that you'll have to take my word on…"
"Take your word… are you joking with me? You wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and slapped you in the face. Worse thing is you don't even keep track of your lies so you contradict yourself all the time. How am I supposed to take you word?"
"Well you'd better take my word this time," said Alfredo. But as they were talking he noticed Casey standing not too far off in his clown suit. It was difficult for Alfredo to tell what he was doing in his clown garb so he decided to play it safe. "I'll be at the Marina you can come if you want but if you don't show there will be consequences," said Alfredo as he nodded towards Casey. "We're done here."
"Okay," said Raul as he glanced over at Casey. "I'll be there but no more screwing around and like you said there'll be consequences."
After John got ready he walked out of the trailer determined to see what Alfredo and Raul were up to. He had no idea what they had been talking about just that their conversation seemed to be heated. He watched as they saw him then split up and disappeared like roaches when you turn the light on.
"Okay scurry away I've got your number," said Casey as he watched Raul and Alfredo break up from their chat heading in different directions. "I'll deal with you later," he said as he watched Raul head back to their trailer then he watched Alfredo head over to roped off section of the circus. He dropped back then waited for the coast to be clear and he started to follow Alfredo but he didn't get very far.
"There you are," said Giovanni. "Come along. You need to hurry you're the first one up. I need for you to make this as good as you did in my office. The only thing is take it easy with our public. Remember they're the ones that put bread on our table."
"But I was kind of busy," said Casey as he looked over at Alfredo who turned around looking at him. Now it was too late to do anything.
"Yes you're busy going out in the middle of the center ring. Listen Johann our little circus here is in deep financial trouble and this European tour was my idea to put us back in the black. I need for everyone to pull his weight and I'll be the first to admit I need some people to pull more than others and one of them is you. Can you do this for me? Can you help me save all this," said Giovanni as he waved his arms about.
"I understand where you're coming from and I'll do my best," he said. "Show me the way and let's get this show on the road."
"There we go that's the spirit. Let me announce you then you can begin your act and let's go knock 'em dead."
"I can do that," said Casey as he cracked his knuckles. "I like knocking things out." He looked over at Alfredo who was watching what was going on. He had such a look of disdain on his face. Casey smiled at him then follow Giovanni into the big top. Inside the crowd had poured from the opposite side which was why John hadn't see them.
"Hey you make my kid laugh," yelled one guy from the crowd. "That's what clowns do." John looked over at Giovanni who smiled back at him waving him on.
"Geez, how low have I sunk. Okay but I'm going to need you to volunteer. I promise you your kid will be rolling on the floor," said John. 'But you won't," was what he said in his head as he pulled his BB pistol.