Don't own Chuck

When the new men arrived, Jian turned them over to his security officer Chen so he could go grab a little sleep in the bunkroom behind the security office. Ettore had been running him ragged the whole day so now he had the chance to grab a few hours of sleep in peace and quiet or so he thought. He had just started to drift off or so it had seemed when there was a knock at the bunkroom door.

"What is it now," he said as he got and went to the door. This had better be good or whoever's at the door is dead, he thought as he opened it. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Yes, what the hell are you doing here," said a voice behind him. Bao turned and found the same man as before.

"Chen, you know this man? What the hell is he doing waking me up?" said Jian as both men looked at him.

"I don't know I left him on watch guarding Tien in the cells. The Minister sent Tien over while you were asleep so I had him locked up. This man and another agent were sent over with him."

"Was sent over because I was coming over to work on the servers. My branch is IT and as I told you I'm not a field agent. One of my men showed up and he relieved me…"

"Do I have to remind you that you and your men are my men? What does that have to do with you waking me up from a sound sleep? Chen, is in charge when I'm not around and if he put you on watch that's where you stay."

"I don't want to get in an argument over this. I just wanted to tell you that the system is up and running perfectly. I informed the Minister about this breakthrough I had and that was the reason he sent me over. He was very happy when I told him."

"So, let me get this right Wang sent you over here to finish the work on the servers," said Jian as he looked at Chen. Chen shrugged his shoulders.

"Well yes… I think the misunderstand occurred because they are short of Agents back at headquarters. Something about the American trying to commit suicide so there was only one agent to escort Tien here. The Minister knew I was coming so he asked me a favor to ride along with her."

"He asked you to do him a favor?" said Jian as he looked over at Chen. Chen couldn't tell if he was in trouble or not but he didn't like the look in Jian's eyes.

"That's right and luckily one of my people came walking by so I grabbed him and told him to take my watch. That way I went back and finished the work on the servers and now I'm here to tell you everything is ready go. All we need is the nod for both servers to connect then the data flow will begin."

"Very good, go back to your people and have them standby for the morning. When Ettore wakes up I'm sure he'll want a demonstration. I'll inform the minister that everything is ready to go."

"If you want I can do that," said Bao. "I mean I don't want to step on anyone's toes but since I told him about the server at Headquarters I think he's expecting me to call him about what I've done here."

"Well we'll notify both in the morning. Right now, there's no reason to wake either up to tell them everything is working as it is supposed to be."

"Yes, of course," said Bao as he looked back at Chen then at Jian. "Well if there's no further need for me I'll be down in the server room." He said but neither said anything so he left closing the security office door behind him.

"No, there's no further need for you," said Chen. "Can you believe that guy wanting to call the Minister directly. Who does he think he is?"

"So, we have Tien in a cell. Chen when were you going to tell me?" said Jian as he looked at Chen. Sweat broke out on his forehead thinking he was in trouble.

"I was going to tell you but once you woke up. There was no rush in waking you up to tell you we had him in a cell down below and I didn't see the need in waking you up."

"And you were right not to," said Jian as he patted Chen on the shoulder. "I put you in charge to make decisions not to come to me every time someone sneezes and I don't trust Bao. I think he might be trouble for us in the future."

"He did solve the computer problem we had or at least he says he did. But I have to say he likes to drop the minister's name a lot."

"Maybe too much if you ask me and I'm not so sure he solved the computer problem or his team did and he's trying to take the credit. We need to keep an eye on him but for now I'm going to try to go back to sleep. While I'm asleep you might find out if he did in fact do what he claims he did by going down and asking his people."

"I'll try to get them away from him or they won't tell me what I need to know," said Chen. Jian smiled back at him.

"I knew there was a reason I put you in charge. You're the security officer so go make us secure. You might call to HQ and find out what's going on with that American. There's something about what Bao said that doesn't make sense."

"I'll get right on it," said Chen then he turned and started to leave.

"No, wait a second... on second thought forget about that. If you call over there they might try to dump him on us like what the Minister did with Tien. I hear this American is good and I'd prefer not to have him around under foot."

"But he just tried to commit suicide like spies do when they are caught. He'll be in no shape to do anything so why are you so worried about him?"

"Chen, don't make me second guess if I did the right thing in promoting you. From what I've seen and heard about this American he's not the kind to go out without a fight. I don't want him here if nothing else because he and Ettore have a history. The mere mention of the agent's name might send Ettore over the edge... not that I have to justify myself to you. Now let me get some sleep before Ettore wakes up and he screams for me. Because if he screams at me you know who I'll be screaming at?"

"Me," said Chen as he pointed at himself.

"See you're a bright lad. Now goodnight," said Jian as he closed the bunkroom door.

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Beckman was sitting behind her desk in Langley doing the only thing she could do - get caught up on paperwork. She was making good headway in her in box and she already called Connie in twice to empty her out box. Roan had offered her a Martini but she refused. She didn't feel like drinking not that it was too early, which it was, but because the alcohol on her knotted stomach would make her ill.

"Thanks for offering me my own booze. That's very generous of you," said Beckman over a file folder she had open. She signed it then tossed it in the out box.

"Yes, true it was your booze but like Michelangelo I liberated the beauty within the raw elements to create something divine."

"Divine? It's just a Martini," said Diane as she buzzed for Connie to come in. "Can you please empty my out box and can I get another cup of coffee. Roan, I'd ask you if you wanted a cup but you've got a pitcher of paint thinner there to drink."

"Yes, Ma'am," said Connie as she smiled at Roan who smiled back and raised his glass to her. Connie then grabbed the General's in box before leaving.

"Will you stop flirting with her? I'll give her ten minutes then I'm going to have to get up and get my own coffee because she'll have forgotten. That will be because of you."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I was just being polite. She noticed me and I noticed her that was all it was," said Roan with a coy smile over the top of his Martini. He knew it was much more than that and was proud of it.

"Don't give me that Mister. You and I both know what you did... do... are doing and if you don't mind knock it off or I'll never get any work done. Aren't you supposed to be somewhere other than here flirting with my staff?" Before he could answer the Major walked in. He knocked on her door then came in carrying a folder.

"I don't suppose you're going to accuse me of flirting with the Major too," said Roan. He smiled to see the Major turned a deep shade of red. "Would you like a drink there handsome?"

"No… no, I can't I'm in uniform and on duty," stuttered the Major as he looked back and forth at the two of them wondering what he'd just stepped in the middle of or if there was any chance of un-stepping himself.

"Never mind Roan, he's just being silly. You came to see me for a reason I assume," said the General as she gave Roan a look.

"Right, I did… well I came to tell you that we just got word from the Dulles airport. Ambassador Mei Sheng was seen boarding a flight for Beijing a little while ago. I've tried to call his office to confirm but I got the run around."

"I hope this doesn't mean he's been recalled. But proper protocol would be for him or his government to notify the Secretary of State that his posting is over and his credentials have been revoked."

"You're expecting the Chinese to play by the rules and I don't want to say anything but this Wang guy doesn't seem to be the type to think that the rules apply to him."

"For someone who said he didn't want to say anything you certainly said a lot," snapped Beckman as she sat back in her chair and tried to figure out if there was anything she could do but nothing came mind.

"I hate to be the barer of bad news but I brought you this folder too. This came back on those Chinese spies we took into custody," said the Major as he laid the folder on her desk. "I had prints and DNA taken from them then ran that through our data base to see if we could tie them into any other activities and I got a hit."

"Good thinking," said the General as she opened the folder. "Excuse me but why am I only seeing this now? There was a break in at one of our secret storage facilities and no one bothered to notify me?"

"There wasn't a break in but an attempted break in. There was an inventory done but nothing was missing. Security arrived almost as soon as the alarms went off so we assume the robbers fled before they could take anything. We found some fingerprints but there was nothing in the system… nothing until now."

"Good work but something doesn't sound right. Let me see the inventory of what's in the vault," said Beckman. She quickly looked over the list as they looked on.

"That isn't where we put the Ark of the Covenant that Indian Jones retrieved," said Roan as he finished the Martini in his glass then poured him another. "You sure you won't drink with me darling?" he said as he smiled at the Major.

"Roan, stop corrupting my people and lay off the booze… especially my booze. Here we are. I thought I remembered this facility. There are or were a pair of intersect download glasses in there. But the report says they were inventoried after the break in and they were still there. I wonder..."

"That's right," said the Major. "It's all in the report. They made sure everything was accounted for but now we know who was trying to break in… Wang's men."

"Trying or did," said the General. She saw the Major's face. "I know what the report says. I can read you know but how did they inventory the stuff? Did they just look at everything or did they make sure what's in the box was what's supposed to be in the box?"

"I'm sorry you got me there," said Roan. "If the inventory says everything is there then everything is there."

"Really and are you going to tell me you can tell a pair of intersect glasses from a pair of Ray Ban Wayfarer's just by looking at them? I want those glasses checked like yesterday. In the future, I want to know when crap like this happens. Remember the devil's in the details and that's what this is."

"You think Wang stole the glasses? But why? They won't do him any good without a means to download to them."

"Wang probably doesn't know what he stole. He grabbed them for Ettore the same way he was trying to grab the governor. Ettore is trying to put together an intersect reboot. He's trying to re-write the intersect he has to fix what he's got in his head. If he does that he will be extremely dangerous."

"Don't you think Chuck knows all this? He knew when Ettore grabbed his sister he was looking for a way to fix himself."

"Yes, but now he actually has a means to do it."

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Chen realized as he left Jian none of Bao's people would talk freely to him while Bao was standing behind them listening. So to get them to talk, he needed to cut one from the herd so he could get the real story. Chen decided to go double check to make sure Bao hadn't abandoned his post and he also figured if he could talk with the person he'd sent he might have his loose steer he was looking for. He went down to the detention cells and there found two guards outside the cell door.

"I guess Bao wasn't lying," said Chen to himself as he walked nearer. "Well not about this but we'll see about the server. Hey you, what's your name?"

"Me, my name is So and who are you," said Chuck as he turned to face Chen. "Are you my relief? Bao told me I wouldn't be here long."

"No, I'm the security officer and I'm double checking to make sure all the posts are covered. So, Bao has you covering for him? He must be important… fixing the servers like he did? I guess too important to stand his own watch."

"I don't know what you're talking about. You know there are two Baos or as we call them Bao, Bao," said Chuck as Chen came closer.

"I'm talking about your boss... the guy in charge or thinks he is. You know the man in charge of you geeks. So, So Bao discovered a way to make the servers work. But I can't help but think he had some help. He doesn't impress me as having the savvy because if he had he would've fixed them a long time before now."

"You know that's a good observation and you're right. It was a group effort with us all contributing but isn't that the way things go. When the team pulls through it's the boss that hogs all the glory. However, if things go wrong it's everyone's fault except his?"

"Water only runs one way," said Chen as he got near to Chuck but the other person continued to have their back to him.

"I wasn't thinking about water but I guess that flows only one way too. Do you have any idea what time my relief will be here?"

"He'll be here when I send him here which won't happen until I get back to the security office and work in this post into my schedule. You know you look taller than before," said Chen looking at the other guard.

"I think I've also changed sex," said Tien as he turned to look at Chen in the face. Chen took a gasp then tried to reach for his weapon but Chuck tranq'd him before he could pull it.

"We prefer to be called nerds by the way. We can dump him inside then we can go look for Anna. Hopefully she'll have located everyone then we can get them out of here."

"But extracting them doesn't help me neither does it care of Wang," said Tien as Chuck opened the door to the cell then they tossed Chen inside.

"I know but one thing at a time. Once I have everyone out of harm's way I'll have more room to maneuver. Then we'll bring down Ettore and Wang once and for all," said Chuck as Tien locked the door to the cell. "You know I've forgotten what phase we're in now."

"Does it matter?" asked Tien as he snapped the key off in the lock then tossed the others as far as he could into the dark.

"No, not really. Okay now we need to get a move on it before someone misses Chen. Follow me there should be an older service elevator somewhere over there that will take us up to the third floor," said Chuck as he pointed off into the darkness.

"How do you know that? You said you've never been here before?" said Tien. Chuck was good... a little bit too good for Tien.

"I reasoned where Ettore would hole up at before we came here. Someplace out of the way but close enough to be able to connect to the power grid. I checked the electric company to find places that were using a good about of energy but were supposed to be closed. Then I researched the layout and looked for the blueprints of the building in the archives. It's amazing what you can find on Goggle these days."

"Yes, it certainly is," said Tien as he followed Chuck. He wasn't sure if he believed him or not but he led him straight to the service elevator he'd been talking about.

"We can use this to get my people out afterwards," said Chuck as he opened the doors. "Come on we need to hurry up. The clock is ticking now."

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The Air China flight that left Dulles then made a stop at LAX on its way to Beijing. The pilot announced they were experiencing a minor problem with a fuel gauge so for safety purposes they were going to have it looked at while they were on the ground. For this reason, all the passengers would have to deplane and wait in the terminal but they would soon be back up in the air. Among the passengers who had to deplane was Ambassador Mei Sheng.

"Ambassador, my name is Dewayne and if you don't mind this way I'll get you situated in our VIP lounge. You can wait there while your plane is being repaired."

"Thank you Dewayne, but you know when they tell you gauges or some other gizmo doesn't work you should really start to worry. They tell you it's not something important because they don't want to scare you or the other passengers. They tell you it's something unimportant so you won't think that the plane you were on could've gone down any moment so they can get you back on again."

"I can reassure you Sir that it's only a fuel gauge but they are important. Without a fuel gauge, it's difficult to measure the amount of fuel in the tanks so it's difficult to know if you've got enough especially when you're crossing the Pacific."

"When I was going to university I put a small motor on my bicycle to help me get to classes on time. The whole thing I threw together but I was constantly running out of gas then I had to pedal it like a normal bike with the added weight of the motor. I ended up topping off every chance I got but I still got stuck sometimes."

"Well with your bicycle you had the option to pedal but with a plane there isn't that option. Nor can you pull over to the side of the road then walk to the nearest gas station."

"No, I guess there isn't," said the Ambassador as he followed behind Dewayne. However, the Ambassador noticed that there were gradually fewer and fewer people around them until there weren't any more.

"Excuse me Dewayne, I don't want to second guess your knowledge of your airport, but are you sure this is the right way? I don't think I've ever been in this section of the airport before," said Mei as he started to get nervous. He never thought Wang would try anything physical but now after what had happened he wouldn't but anything past him, not even his own assassination.