A/N: I don't own or make any $ from Chuck
Embassy parties in Washington DC are always one of highlights of government service, and often prove to be a fertile playground for intelligence agencies. This particular party was being held at the Russian consulate in celebration of a new American, Russian and German mining collaboration. The expanding American technology market required an increase in the supply of precious metals needed to build newer computers. This led to the opening of 3 new German facilities across Russia to mine their vast trove of natural resources, which would employ thousands of Russians for generations to come.
It was a political "win-win" situation for all those involved, and one that each countries politicians, were eager to exploit. The party was a typical DC feeding frenzy, with the Americans supplying their finest money men, Germans supplying their finest spirits, and the Russians supplying their finest "female graduate students."
Deputy secretary Hans Garber was milling about the bar, trying to decide which lovely Russian " graduate student" to take home for the evening, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
"Hello Hans," Beckman said.
"Well Diane. I hardly recognize you," he said.
"Well I thought the occasion called for it," Beckman said as she wore a light blue evening gown, with a healthy showcase of her legs.
"I must say you do look different without the uniform. I never knew you had such legs," he smiled.
"Well you never were good enough to get to see them."
"I'm sure. So what brings you here tonight? Surely not the atmosphere," he said.
"No. I would appreciate a minute of your time, before you begin you "tutoring" session for the evening," she said as she took his arm and led him to a dark corner of the room.
"Come now Diane. They are students. We were students once," he chuckled.
"Not like them," she said as they reached a secluded section.
"So Hans ...,"
"Before you ask, the answer is no."
"Now Hans why do we have to start off so negatively. I have not even asked you anything yet," she said.
"Please Diane let's not waste each other's time. You and I both know what this is about. It is amazing that you let that basses live for so long. Just another display of not having your house in order," Garber said.
"I am in agreement with you, but I think you might be misreading the situation. I'm not here to ask if you have had any American imports lately, you and I both know that you haven't."
"Then what are you doing here Diane?"
"I'm here to tell you to stay out of it."
"Oh please Diane we have no interest in..."
"No more games Hans! We are operating under a new policy and any assistance or comfort given to an enemy of our country will be dealt with severely and decisively."
"Is this supposed to be a threat?"
"No Hans. This is professional courtesy. We still need our friends, but let's just say that the friends of our enemies will now official be our enemies as well."
"Well it seems this new administration has a different view of the world," Garber said.
"That would be correct and it's about time. Leading from behind never works. Just ask Neville Chamberlain."
"Low blow Diane," Garber replied.
"Listen Hans. I always liked you, but this is more important than either of us. Just take care of yourself," she said as she turned to leave.
"Diane," he called.
"Yes?"
"I appreciate your concern. Rest assured that I am your friend, and will make sure to let you know if I hear of any special imports from America."
"You're a good man Hans," she said as she left.
Garber slowly swirled his drink and though about the ramifications of the new policy. Graham was now radioactive, and nothing he could do, or classified information he would be able to reveal, would be able to change that. Diane would have known the Russians would have cameras here, and their entire conversation would be recorders, so she effectively just told the Russians the same thing. He suddenly lost interest in any female accompaniment, and quickly picked up his phone.
"Have the car out front in 5 minutes. Then alert the embassy that I need to get to Berlin. Yes tonight," he said as he hung up his phone and headed for the entrance.
Garber was suddenly flush as he thought about what hell the Americans could unleash upon their enemies. He had read some of the Intel reports about what they had, and what they were trying to design, but most of that data was years old. The terrifying thought to him was what could they have now?
###########################################################
Graham was waiting for his contact in a nice little alpine cafe just outside of town. He was enjoying a caffè crema, a Swiss twist on an espresso next to a roaring fire, when a distinguished looking older man in finely tailored suite sat down next to him.
"How is the coffee?
"You're late," Graham said as he put his cup down.
"Occupational hazard I'm afraid," the man answered in English with the hint of a Russian accent.
"I've been waiting here for over 20 minutes," Graham growled.
"And yet you are still here, so obviously you need my help. So what do you want me to do," the man asked.
"Can you kill this person," Graham said as he slid him a picture.
The man turned it over and looked at it for a second, before slowly tossing it in the fire.
"Yes," the man simply said.
"What is your price?"
"If I take this job I will have to disappear forever," he said.
"Understood," Graham replied.
"200 million. Half now, half on completion," the man said. Graham swallowed hard as he heard the man's number. He expected it to be large, but nothing like this; however he was backed into a corner and he knew it.
"Ok," Graham said.
"Once I get confirmation of the first deposit the operation will begin. If at any point the operation is compromised I will decide whether or not to continue. In either case the deposit is nonrefundable."
"I understand."
"How many people know about this?"
"Just us."
"Good. No one else must know. Keep hidden until after the event. Understand," the man said as he got up to leave.
"I understand. Do I use the same account?"
"Yes. I'll be in touch," the man said as he left.
Graham involuntarily shivered as he thought about what he had just done. Even a few years ago he never would have contemplated such a move, but things had changed. If they were going to come after Langston Graham, then he was going to go after them.
Sarah lay still as memories long suppressed, suddenly began to visualize in her brain. She could hear voices echo, but she couldn't detect where they were coming from, as she struggled to open her eyes.
...k? ..n you hear me?"
"Are you ok? Can you hear me?"
She felt someone nudge her shoulder, she true to move her arms but they felt like they were tied together. After struggling to pull herself awaken, finally opened her eyes and saw a kind faced woman, gently stroking her cheek.
"Are you ok? Can you hear me," she said as he looked at her with eyes of full of concern.
"Yes," Sarah replied.
"Over here! I've got one," the woman yelled.
"It's ok sweetheart. We are going to get you out of here," she said as she began to remove her restraints.
"What do you have," a familiar voice called from behind.
"A little girl. The bastard had her strapped into a bed."
"My God the man is a monster! How is she doing," the voice said as it got closer.
"She is freezing. We need to get her out of here and get her to Steven as soon as possible."
"I'll take her," the voice said now very close to her.
"No I'll do it," the woman said.
"Mary. You are too close. He is your old partner and keeps tabs on you, and if he finds out that Steven might be able to help these children then God knows what he will do. Think about Charles!"
Charles...Charles...Charles...Charles...
"Besides I'm dead anyway. Remember," the voice laughed.
"No you are right. Just take good care of her Hartley. Please."
Hartley...Hartley...Hartley...Hartley
"As if she were my own," he said as he a gathered her in his arms. The woman leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"Don't be afraid sweetheart. We are going to help you," she said.
"Well my dear shall we be off," Hartley said as he looked down at her.
"What's your name luv," he asked.
"I don't...I ..don't...I remember it," she moaned.
"That's ok. Why don't I call you after my mother? The most honorably lady I know. Her name is Sarah. Sound good?"
"Ah..huh."
"Splendid. Now Sarah let's get you out of here," he said as she was whisked away.
Suddenly she was in a room lying down in a bed, and could hear the voices again.
"How does she look?"
"I'm not sure yet. It looks like whatever they were giving these kids really did a number on their brains."
"Can you help her?"
"I'll do my best, but she is in pretty rough shape."
"Can you do the same thing you did with me?"
"No. Your problem was caused by the introduction of an actual device into your brain. Her trauma looks to be pharmaceutical induced. She actually looks to be going through some type of withdraw, I mean her brain functions read like that of an addict," he said.
"They drugged these kids?"
"It appears that way. She is going to have to fight through the physical symptoms as well. Poor girl," he said.
"She will do it. This girl is a fighter Steven."
"Why do you say that?"
"Just a feeling..."
Steven...Steven...Steven...Steven...
Her mind flashed to her next memory. She was lying in a bed and could see a man and a young boy outside her room. They were talking softly but she could still hear them.
"How much longer dad, "the boy asked.
"I don't know Charles. This little girl needs help and right now it's more important that I help her then going to the arcade," the man said.
"But dad I..,"
"Ok fine. No computer for a month."
"But dad..,"
"2 months!"
"That's not..,"
"3 months!"
"Ok!"
"Good. Now just wait out here and I will be back in a minute. Wait a minute, why do you smell like strawberries? Did you use your sisters shampoo again?"
She smiled as she heard the exchange, there was something about the boy that seemed to make her smile. She had no idea who he was, and he seemed to be very shy, but there was something about him that she liked.
"Hi Sarah. How are you feeling today? Do you remember me? My name is Steven," he said.
"Hi. Yes I remember you. I'm doing ok. Can I go home soon?"
"Very soon. We just need to run a few more tests on you and then you will be A-OK. I just need you to wear this for a few minutes, "he said and put a little adhesive patch on the side of her head near her temple.
The boy was sheepishly peeking through the door at the exchange between his father and the girl on the bed. He was just about at that age when girls became much more interesting, and soon forgot about the arcade, and found himself very interested in her.
"Good girl. I need to run outside for a bit, but I'll be back soon," he said as he noticed her discomfort about being left alone.
He looked over his shoulder and saw his son duck when his turned in his direction, seemingly embarrassed about being seen by his father.
"Charles make yourself useful and come in here," he said and turned his attention back to Sarah.
"I would like to introduce you to my son Charles. Charles come over here," he said as a shy boy appeared in the doorway.
"Hi," she said.
"Charles say hello to Sarah," Steven said.
"Hi," he said shyly.
"Sarah Charles will keep you company when I'm gone. Do you know how to play chess," he asked as he spotted Chuck's chessboard on the windowsill in his office.
"No."
"That's ok. Charles will teach you. Isn't that right Charles," he said.
"Yes," he said with all the enthusiasm of someone headed to the gallows.
"Ok I'll be back in a bit. You two have fun," he said as he left the room.
The boy reluctantly approached her with a chessboard and began to set up the pieces on the side of her bed. They were both very shy, and neither one spoke as he set up the board, almost as if waiting for the other to break the silence. Finally almost done the set up, Chuck broke the silence.
"Do you want to be black or white?"
"I don't know? What's the difference?"
"Nothing really. Just white gets to move first," he said.
"I'll be white," Sarah said.
"Of course," the boy chuckled.
Sarah was very shy by nature, and her current situation did nothing but heighten her nerves and uneasiness, but there was something about him. It was almost an involuntary feeling of relaxation she felt as she watched him with the chess pieces.
"Uh Charles...I..,"
"Chuck. You can call me Chuck," he said as he moved the board around so she could access it.
Chuck…Chuck…Chuck…Chuck….
"Ok Chuck. I don't know how to play?"
"That's ok I will show you. How old are you" he asked.
"I'm..I well I'm not sure," she said.
"You don't know how old you are?"
"I guess not," she said fumbling for a response.
"Why not? Didn't you ever have a birthday party with your friends?"
"Ah I ah...I uhm...I don't know. I don't really have any friends I guess," she said and could feel herself getting more frustrated for not being able to remember anything about her life, causing her to cry.
Chuck saw her eyes well up and really felt bad for her, and instantly wanted to make her stop crying. The problem was he didn't know what to do to make her feel better, so he just began to ramble.
"Hey its ok look birthdays aren't that big of a deal..and friends..I don't..well I have one Morgan but..mainly I have my sister..but she always busy..so I play with myself a lot...or by myself a lot," Chuck said beat red.
Sarah couldn't help it, she started smiling at his response and instantly felt a warm feeling of happiness begin to come over her. She could even detect the slight scent of strawberries.
Hartley was monitoring the readout of the instruments in the observation room when Steven walked in.
"Well your plan is working Steven."
"What do you mean?"
"Whatever you did to her is causing all of these crazy readouts to settle down," he said pointing to the monitors.
The last few days had been rough for Sarah. She was extremely frightened and frustrated at not being able to remember anything about her ordeal. The preliminary scans he took of her when she came in, looked very much like Hartley's before the governor had been applied. In short Sarah's brain looked to be collapsing into insanity.
Trying to find what could be causing this, Steven poured over the data from Chuck's brain scan after he downloaded the intersect like a man possessed, looking for any similarity that he could apply to Sarah. He was focused specifically on the neocortex and the amygdalae, the parts that control logic and fear respectively, when he noticed the anomaly. He noticed in Chuck's scans that after he had downloaded the intersect, the amygdalae, the part of the brain that is involved with fear processing, was showing a heighten end sense of activity. When he compared the image to Sarah's when Hartley first brought her to him, he noticed some shocking differences.
Whereas Chuck's amygdalae was operating with a slight increase of activity, Sarah's was off the charts. She seemed to be processing every action as a fear response. He went over the chemical analysis of the drugs they found in her system and came to a rather savage conclusion. The drugs that they were exposing the children to in the program, were targeting their fear response. In essence they were to destroy their sense of fear, but something was going terribly wrong. The drug seemed to target that area by over stimulation, producing the opposite of the desired effect, it was causing paranoia.
His latest test that he was intending to preform today, would be aimed at trying to control the stimulation of that region, but something had dramatically changed. Since she had been talking with Chuck her fear processing was virtually nonexistent, almost as if her entire amygdalae had ceased to exist. Now her brain scans looked like a new girl, the hyper activity had stopped and neural functionality was almost back to normal.
"That's odd, I haven't done anything yet," Steven said while looking at the monitor.
"What does that mean," Hartley asked.
"I have no idea," Steven replied as he looked at the two talk on the surveillance monitor.
"She looks to be doing better," Hartley said.
"She is doing better. It's like night and day," Steven said.
"How is it happening? Is it just wearing off?"
"No. Brain trauma doesn't just magically get better. I don't know what's happening, but her brain is clearly working normally again."
"No medication was given correct," he asked Hartley.
"I have her secured Steve. Nobody knows about her, just like nobody knows about Chuck," Hartley said.
"Chuck?"
Suddenly Steven's mind went into overdrive as he remembered something about his son's initial brain scan after downloading the intersect.
"Do you still have his files in the computer? Can you bring them up?"
"Yeah sure. Here you go," Hartley said as he typed a few buttons and an image of Chuck's brain came online.
"Ok go to the one marked 3123-chess," he said.
"Ok."
"This is the first one where he was playing chess with you. There hold that one," Steven yelled as he looked at the screen.
"Son of a bitch! I can't believe it!"
"Believe what? What are you looking at," Hartley asked.
"I can't believe it!...I need to go figure this out..watch the kids..," Steven said as he ran out the door.
"When will you be back," Hartley yelled after him.
"Soon!"
"What the hell is going on," he said as he looked back at the screen with the two children playing.
"I don't understand. If this piece can move all over the place why isn't it the most important," she said holding the queen.
"The queen is the most important," he replied.
"But then why isn't the game over when you capture the queen," she asked.
"Because the object of the game is to capture the king," he replied.
"I don't get it. I like the queen the best," she said as she held up the white queen.
"It's my favorite piece."
Favorite piece...favorite piece...favorite piece.
"We need to get her some help," Sarah heard a very agitated Chuck say as she began to come back to the present.
"She is going to be alright," Hartley said calmly.
"The hell she …,"
"Chuck!"
"Sarah? Are you ok? Speak to me," he said as he cradled her face.
"I'm…I'm…ok…I'm good," she said as she hugged him tight.
"Welcome back Sarah. I will give you two a minute," Hartley said as he got up to leave.
"Don't go," she said to chuck as she felt him try to break their embrace.
"I liked it better when your hair smelled like strawberries," she whispered.
"Huh? What are you talking about?"
"I have so much to tell you," she whispered.