Don't own Chuck
The 20th administrative district of Paris also known as "arrondissement de Ménilmontant" is located on the Right Bank. It contains the cosmopolitan districts of Ménilmontant and Belleville which have welcomed many successive waves of immigration since the middle of the 19th century. Belleville contains the second largest Chinatown in Paris. In the 20th arrondissement is also the Père Lachaise Cemetery where the tombs of many famous composers can be found such as Frédéric Chopin and Gioacchino Rossini; writers including Oscar Wilde and Marcel Proust; painters Camille Pissarro, Jacques-Louis David, and others; and the rock singer Jim Morrison of The Doors. But the 20th arrondissement is also home to the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure or the DGSE where Philip worked as an analyst.
Philip got off the phone with Sheila then sat in front of his computer staring at the monitor. He looked around to make sure he was alone then downloaded the photos from his phone. The first thing he did was enhance the images. This would speed up the facial recognition and cut down on the number of false hits.
"What are you working on," said a voice from behind him causing him to almost jump out of his chair. "Sorry, a bit jumpy are we today?"
"Sorry boss but I didn't hear you come up behind me. What am I working on you asked," he said but nothing came to mind.
"Yes I think that was my question. I don't remember giving you anything that required facial recognition. Who's that for? You know how the muckety mucks feel about the invasion of privacy."
"I know one of our guys called in from the train station and asked me to run these two on the down low. He said they were acting suspiciously and he just wanted to make sure they weren't wanted or anything."
"Go for it I'm all for prevention. These bureaucrats scream about privacy but when crap goes down we're the first people they blame. Expand your perimeters and tap into the CIA database that will give you the best possibility of identifying your perps. When you get that done I'd like you type in this code then get back to me."
"Sure no problem," said Philip as he looked through the folder. "It's pretty self-explanatory. Okay I've got this. Thanks." With that his boss left. If only he knew he was doing a favor for Interpol his boss would've had something else to say and none of it would've been pleasant.
"Oh I got a match back," said Philip. "Okay Natasha something or other who are you? Hey wait Zondra Rizzo? That's not Russian no you're American and... hum... Well Iet's try our other photo and see if the Kolonel is the Kolonel." He said as he tapped into their Russian database.
"You should call Sheila and tell her about the American woman," he said to himself. "But why don't you wait a little bit for the Russian to hit then you've only have to make one phone call."
He was sitting waiting and waiting. It seemed like the wheel of death on his screen was going to gyrate for eternity. As he was waiting his phone rang causing him to jump again.
"Crap," he said as he answered it. "Who is this and what do you want? I'm busy so if it's not important... Yeah I own a new black Mini Cooper in the park garage. ... That's my license plate number. Hey what's going on? …. It's been what? Bumped into? How? …. I'm on my way."
Philip switched off his monitor then grabbed his coat and left. He hurried down the corridor mumbling insults as he waited in front of the elevator punching the button over and over trying to get it to arrive earlier. When it arrived he got in bumping into a man as he got off.
"Hey watch where you're going," snapped Philip. "It's people like you distracted that bump into other people's cars in the garage." But the man never turned around he just kept on going. "Cretin, you could've at least apologized. Merde," he said as heads turned to look at him in the elevator.
"I'm sorry I just got called by security telling me that someone bumped into my car in the garage. I pay good money to keep it there so idiots won't vandalize it parked on the street then this happens. What kind of world do we live in? Some people shouldn't be allowed to drive.
By the time he got to the garage he had himself all worked up but when he got to his floor he noticed no one was around.
"Where's security?" he thought as he walked over to his car. "I thought they were going to be waiting for me." The only sign of life around his car was a dark van parked next to it with the engine running. He made a quick walk around his Mini and it was still in the immaculate condition the same way it was when he parked it.
"Phew, what a relief," he said as he stood behind it. He started to turn and leave when someone called his name.
"Philip Degasse," said a male voice from behind.
"Yes that's me," he said as he turned back. He heard two puffs and felt something like a bee sting in his chest then it was lights out.
A few hours later he woke up slowly with his head feeling like he had too much to drink the night before. He looked around the room he was in but couldn't see much. It was dark and he felt damp so he figured he was in a basement somewhere. He tried to get up but he found he was duct taped to a chair so he wasn't going anywhere.
"Help! Help!" he tried to yell but this throat stung and his vocal cords ached. His mouth was dry and parched making it difficult to speak. Suddenly a bright light came on and two men walked in that was when he discovered his chair was on a big piece of plastic tarp. He wondered if that was to keep blood splatter down.
"Listen I don't know what's going on but I don't know anything to be of interest to you. I'm just an analyst I get documents then I transfer them into data. From time to time I do a little code writing but nothing that's sensitive or secret so I don't understand what's going on."
A monitor flickered in front of him then a woman appeared dressed in a United States Air Force Uniform. From the stars on her shoulders she was a General.
"Then can you tell me what you were doing with facial recognition? I should warn you the way you leave here will depend on your answers. So let's get to the more pressing question who do you really work for?"
I work for the DGSE," said Philip as he looked around. "What did you mean by the way I leave here will depend on my answers."
"Either vertically or horizontally now let's get back to who do you work for. I don't care about your day job I'm talking about your second job."
"What? I don't work for anyone else. It's against Directorate policy to moonlight. I think there's been a big misunderstanding…"
"Yes and you've made it went you ran those photos in facial recognition. Now who do you work for? If you're having trouble remembering my agents will assist you," she said as one of them pulled out a syringe while the other picked up a pair of pliers.
"Hold on I was just doing a friend a favor. She sent me the photos and asked me to check them out then to get back to her. I ran the woman she knows as Natasha that photo came back as being… well one of yours. The Kolonel's I was still running when I left but can I assume he works for you too. That's what this is he's a deep planted asset in the FSB and I stumbled across it? Oh crap what have I done?"
"You are dangerously risking going out of the room horizontally. Who is this friend that asked you to check up on these people," asked Beckman. She intentionally skirted around claiming Zondra and Chuck as her agents.
"I can't tell you, she's a friend. What kind of friend would I be if I gave her up like this? But she's not anyone to worry about I can assure you."
"Here it is," said the one man in black as he looked over Philip's phone.
"Hey that was password protected," said Philip. Evidentially they had a cyber crack that works on cell phones.
"He was contacted by a Sheila Swanson from Bogotá. Here are the photos she sent him too General. What do you want me to do?"
"This is the Ms. Swanson who's in charge of the Interpol office in Colombia I assume," said Beckman. Philip looked at her perplexed. "What? We know everything. Sanitize everything from your end I'll contact Bogotá."
"Hey wait a minute what does sanitize mean," said Philip as he struggled to get free. But one of the agents walked over and gave him a whiff of X-13 gas. He passed out in his chair. Back in his office the man he bumped into lifted his office keycard. The man in black went into Philip's office took out a small EMP device and fired it up. The lights flickered on the whole floor then everything went dark. A few minutes later emergency lighting kicked in but by then the intruder was gone.
When Philip woke up it was dark and he was sitting in his Mini on the outskirts of Paris. Exactly where he had no idea nor did he remember driving there. But from the empty bottle of champagne on the floorboard and the pair of pantyhose hanging from the rearview mirror something told him he must've had fun getting there.
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Sarah was watching the clock sitting in Castle she was about to leave when she got called by the General informing her of some new developments. At first she thought about calling Chuck from home but then Sam would want to talk to him and it was getting close to the time he needed to leave to go to the ranch. Beside she didn't want Sam to get worried one in the family being worried about Chuck was enough. She sat down at the monitor and got the link up.
"Don't you look spiffy," said Sarah. "Mr. Carmichael you scrub up quite nicely. I know you need to run so I won't be long…"
"Loverboy can you do me up," said Zondra as she got in between Chuck and the monitor so the only thing Sarah saw was Zondra's low cut dress.
"There you go now will you get out of here" said Chuck as he tried to get her out of the way. "Can't you see I'm on the horn with Sarah?"
"Oh that's who you were talking to I thought you were talking to yourself again. Hey Sarah," said Zondra. "I'll let you get back to it but you need to talk to our boy. I caught him talking to a strange woman."
"You would know strange and grab something to put on over that dress before you catch a chest cold," said Chuck. "Don't expect me to rub Vic's on you."
"Oh how romantic," said Zondra as she laughed. "But that's not the way you told Sheila to dress is it? I think you told her to wear something that will turn people's heads." Chuck saw Sarah's look in the monitor.
"There is only one head I want her to turn and that's Ettore's if he's busy running after her we'll have an easier time finding Alex."
"Chuck, this woman Zondra's talking about isn't Chief Inspector Sheila Swanson is it? If it is you should know she had a friend run facial recognition on you and Zondra through the Direction Générale De La Sécurité Extérieure."
"Oh the way you speak French is so hot," said Chuck as he got lost in the moment. "Okay the DGSE if she ran me it will come back as Juri but what about Zondra is she compromised?"
"No the General headed it off but you need to be careful around this woman. She doesn't trust you a hundred percent."
"I figured as much but that's okay. I didn't expect her to but I can deal with this as long as she doesn't find out that Zondra killed her colleague."
"She did what? And you're okay with that?"
"Listen you were the one who forced her on me," said Chuck. He regretted saying it as soon as the words came out of his mouth and he saw the look on her face. "Okay forced on me was a bad word choice but you know what I mean? Anyway the man was crooked just we didn't know it at the time."
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear this and it's best if you leave that out of your report or if you do say you knew he was on the take before she eliminated him."
"Okay I really need to go and finish getting ready. I miss you. Hopefully this mission will be over this evening and I can come home. I love you."
"I love you too. I was thinking maybe we should do the laundry when you get home."
"Okay that wasn't exactly what I had in mind but as long as it's with you I'm game. I'm game for anything."
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Alex waited around for her lunch and the longer she waited the more likely she was getting what she asked for. She went to the window and looked out the grate at the garden below then to the distant wall. She waited for a worker to pass by it so she could get an idea how high it was and how difficult it would be to scale.
"It's high but not that high," she said to herself as she looked out at it. "With a little effort and some luck I can get over it." She noticed a farm hand left a ladder near it that he used when pruning the grapevines. She figured they didn't care because they were more concerned about keeping people out then in keeping people in.
"Now for some fun," said Alex. "Okay perverts I'm getting a little tired of putting on a floor show for you," she said. Alex took off one of her high heels then went around the room breaking lenses. The man watching Alex suddenly had camera after camera go blind. He picked up the phone and called Paolo who was watching Maurice finishing Ettore's tux.
"There you go sir," said Maurice as he motioned for Ettore to look at himself in the mirror. "Might I add you'll be the smartest dressed man there. This new tuxedo shows off just how much weight you've lost. I dare say the ladies won't be able to resist you."
"It looks like some of the men too. You're getting a little cheesy there Maurice. So Paolo what do you think? Paolo," said Ettore but Paolo was in a corner talking on the telephone.
"I'm sorry what is it? That was our guard watching the surveillance cameras from Alex's room. She threw a hissy fit and took her shoe to the cameras. She broke every one of them except one which leaves us half blinded in the room."
"Where's her lunch at I think we need to hurry things along our guests will be here shortly. I'll go ahead and begin while you deal with her. You can join me afterwards."
"Okay I'll take care of her just please try not to piss anyone off before I get there," said Paolo. Ettore gave him a look.
"Who me? Everybody loves me. I've got new threads on and I'm ready to rock. Maurice even said so. If things go wrong it's his fault." Maurice looked worriedly at the two of them.
"Don't worry," said Paolo. "We've run out of good tailors so you're safe at least for now. You can go my man will show you out and thanks for the rush order. I'll see to it that you're properly compensated." One of Paolo's men came forward and ushered Maurice out.
"I'm going to go and see why our special order isn't back yet," said Paolo.
"And they say special orders don't upset us," said Ettore as he looked over himself one more time before heading to the study where he was going to receive his guests.
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Morgan and Casey met Chuck and Zondra outside the hotel after Chuck disabled the internal security feeds. He intentionally waited until after Bob and his team left to make their move so they wouldn't cross paths in the elevator or at the reception. Chuck grabbed a wrap on the way out and handed it to Zondra in the elevator on the way down.
"Don't complain," said Chuck as he gave it to her. "You don't have to wear it if you don't want to but after sunset the temperature drops and in that dress you could feel cool."
"I guess I ought to say thank you," said Zondra as they rode the elevator down.
"Pazhalooysta," said Chuck as the doors opened. "You're welcome."
"I said I ought to say thank you not that I said thank you," she said as she got off the elevator and smiled at Chuck. He just shook his head and followed.
"Come on we're meeting Casey and Morgan in the parking lot. They're going to drive us in," said Chuck as he led her outside. Standing next to their Escalade was Casey.
"Before you ask I stashed the troll inside," said Casey as he opened the door for Zondra. Chuck limped over to the other side then got in. Chuck gave Casey the directions to pick up Sheila.
"… John before we pick Sheila up you need to put up the partition she can't see Morgan. When we get there I expect a little flurry when they see Sheila. In that moment you should be able to get out of the vehicle and stowaway on one of the shuttle vehicles for the house. Once you get there you two are on your own. Keep your earbuds in and comms on so we can keep track of each other."
"Chuck, I just want to say thank you and I'm sorry if I didn't come to you at the beginning. I hope you can understand," said Morgan.
"We're going to have to have a long talk when this is done Morgan but for now head in the game. You two need to be careful that Ettore isn't playing you. You can't tell me with everything you two have been involved in since you got here he doesn't know you're in town."
"What are you trying to say Chuck?" asked John as he looked up at him in the rearview. "Just spit it out and be done with it."
"Okay I think you've done exactly what Ettore was hoping you'd do so don't be surprised if this isn't a trap."
"I'm hoping it is so I can introduce him to my friend Heir Sig," said Casey as he patted his shoulder holster. "Then I'll finally get to play whack-a-troll."
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Paolo open the door to Alex's room and brought her a late lunch in person. He looked around the room and saw all the busted cameras then he looked back at her shaking his head. Alex just shrugged her shoulders. Paolo handed her the takeaway bag.
"What can I say; I get cranky when I'm hungry. You certainly did take your sweet time but I guess I should be happy you brought me what I asked for. You did remember to tell them no secret sauce and cheese on the Big Mac?" she asked as she looked in it.
"Of course I did," said Paolo as he watched her looking in it. He had his hand on the syringe in his pocket in case he had to speed up things.
"Well I guess I have to say thank you," said Alex as she sat the bag down on the bed taking out the coke. "I don't see a straw? Did you forget it?"
"Oh yes," he said as he pulled out the straw from the inside of his jacket pocket. "Here I almost forgot. But you know you could take the lid off and drink it from the cup."
"Then the ice melts faster so by the time you finish you're drinking all water with a hint of coke. You really don't know the art of fast food do you?"
"I guess not. Well if there's nothing else I need to go. Don't wait up for Mr. Grimes," said Paolo as he turned to leave. "He's going to busy this evening and won't be done until late." Not that she'd be alive when this was done, he thought. He started to go out.
"Hey wait how am I going to eat my fries there's no ketchup. Everyone knows fries go with ketchup. Do you call this a civilized place?"
"Well not everyone eats them with ketchup. In Europe people eat them with mayonnaise and in the UK they put malt vinegar on their fish and chips."
"Well in the US we prefer ketchup and there isn't any in the bag."
"Start eating the Big Mac and I'll get you some ketchup," said Paolo. Alex was quickly getting on his nerves but he needed to keep his cool.
"I can't that would be like eating dessert then the rest of the meal. You need to eat food in a certain order. Would you eat pie then eat a roast with gravy? I don't think so."
"Okay just wait here I'll run to the kitchen and get you some. Then will you promise to eat and shut up?"
"Sure," said Alex smiling at him.
Paolo turned and left locking the door behind him. Maybe I should've gone with Ettore's plan. A bullet to the back of the head would've been a lot easier and there would be less hassle.