Don't own Chuck
Morgan got out of bed and cautiously walked over to the porthole. It was dark outside and it was hard to see anything so he got close to the glass and press his face up against. Then suddenly he saw two eyes looking back at him from the other side. He almost jumped out of his skin as he fell backwards trying to get away then he recognized the eyes belonged to a face he knew…
"Chuck, what the heck! Not cool dude," said Morgan as he got up. Chuck pecked on the glass again and pointed at the bolts. Morgan loosened them then opened it up.
"What's the matter with you? Don't you know you can give someone a heart attack like that? Dude the porthole's no good as a Morgan door it's too small for you to climb through. Anyone ever tell you that night air isn't good for you?"
"I'm fine where I'm at besides I can't stay long. I need to get back to my room before someone notices I'm missing. I just wanted to tell you that it looks like we're headed for Snake Island off the coast of Bulgaria..."
"I'm hoping that was before Saint Patrick came along and chased them all away. Now there are none but it kept its name, right?"
"Sorry Morgan but for some reason or another they go there to breed and reproduce. Some of them are venomous too…"
"Naturally, of course they are just my luck because it couldn't be any other way," said Morgan as his stomach growled reminding him he was hungry. "Hey by the way you wouldn't happen to have anything edible on you? I found Sarah and she ate two sandwiches I'd made for my late dinner and snack. I even risked getting lynched smuggling them off the mess decks then she goes and eats them..."
"Well, Morgan it's not like she on the mess deck and can sit down for a meal or get her own. So you found her, did she want you to tell me something? Hurry up I can't stay here much longer."
"She's said to tell you she's down in Volkoff's Computer Control Room and she's be hiding out there. She also wanted to know if you found out where Abu has the nuke hidden?"
"No, I haven't but I'm still looking. She needs to try to get word back to Margo to be extra careful. I'm afraid Abu tried to have her grabbed at the airport to use as leverage against me to do something for him. However, since his men failed they might go after the girls in Montenegro."
"Okay I can tell her but look Sarah gave me her phone. The only problem is right now there's no signal because they are using some sort of signal jammer. If you could..."
"I know what you're going to say and yes if I can bring down the jammer so you can make that call. Keep an eye on the signal strength and leave the rest to me."
"Hold up Chuck shouldn't you go back to your room before they find out you're missing. Abu doesn't seem like the kind of guy who'd be happy with you trying to stop him."
"First things first just be ready to make that phone call," said Chuck then he disappeared in the dark. Morgan got up and closed the porthole. He'd just finished closing the porthole when there was a knock at his door.
"Come in," said Morgan as he gave a quick glance at the phone. "Morgan of course no tacks Chuck just left." He took a deep breath as the door opened and he started to walk across the room but as Morgan was walking he remembered he was supposed to limp. "Come in," Morgan repeated.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt... I can come back if this is a bad time," said a man as he came in slowly looking around. The man had a puzzled expression on his face.
"What is it? What do you want? Speak up," said Morgan pretending to act like Ettore. But the man kept looking around. "Do you want to look under my pillow?" said Morgan as he held it up so the man could see the knife.
"No... no I'm sorry I thought I heard voices when I came in… Never mind I was told you were having trouble with your door. I ran a diagnostic program on the server and I couldn't find anything wrong so an easy fix is we rescan your hand print and replace the scan in the computer with this new one."
"So anything I used to be able to open with my hand scan I can do it again with this new one," said Morgan. He smiled as the man nodded.
"Why were you having trouble gaining access to anything else? If you were then this should take care of that but I can't understand how this could've happened… in fact this has never happened before."
"Shush," said Morgan playing it up. "I'm not pointing the finger at anyone. We all have our limits and I can understand you feeling embarrassed at your... well for a lack of a better word ignorance. So let's do this scan and not mention it again. We can keep this between us. I don't think you want me to mention this to Mr. Abu?"
"No... no certainly not. Just place your hand on the scanner and wait for the green light," said the man. A blue light passed over his palm then the green light came on. "Okay I've got it just give me a few minutes in the server room and you should be good to go."
"Thanks," said Morgan as he looked at his hand. "You wouldn't know if the chow line is still open in the galley would you? I'm thinking about a midnight snack."
"Why would you want to wait in the chow line? You just pick up the ship's phone call the galley and have them bring you up a tray. Your Mr. Abu's guest so you don't need to wait in line. Who told you to go down to the mess deck to eat?"
"Oh one of… well I don't need to get you in the middle of this. Thanks for the help and if I were you I'd keep to myself the story about hearing voices. Although I have been known to talk to myself from time to time."
"That must be it," said the man as he got his equipment together then left. Morgan saw him to the door then waited to make sure he was gone. He looked at the phone still nothing.
"Chuck, what are you up to dude," said Morgan as he picked up the receiver. "Ship's galley, yes patch me through. ... Ship's galley, this is Ettore La Barba do you have Chinese takeout? … Okay and how about Grape Soda? Good, I'll take that with a coupled of slices of pizza. I know it's not Chinese but didn't Marco Polo bring it back with him. He brought everything else. Yes, pizza. … the works and I'm kind of hungry so bring me up a whole pie. I'm not tipping if you come up and it's cold so chop-chop. Put a rush on it."
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Casey followed the Mason's Skipper up to their Combat Center just aft of the bridge. On the scope was satellite imagery of the Contessa steaming at full speed. Casey looked over on a chart and they had the course of the target plotted out as well as projected places she could be running to. Banai could never be brought in here not without half the room being covered up.
"I'm sorry Colonel but I can't let your friend in here," said the Skipper. "Everything is classified and well his government isn't a friendly and even if it were it would be difficult to do while trying to operate at the same time."
"Well, Commander friend is a big word. He's more a friend of a friend and an acquired taste," said Casey. "But he's one of the few over there that you can actually work with so I put up with him. I take it Langley wants a report."
"That's right," said Roan and the Major as they came on the monitor. "We were informed you lost your goat by the Commander and are trailing the Contessa."
"Yes, Alexei Volkoff's old ship that was somehow sold at auction? Don't tell me the Russians needed pocket money and put it up for sale?"
"I don't know the details," said Roan. "But I'm more concern about how your mission is progressing. I was told you failed to recover the missile and that it's now onboard the Contessa. What does Agent Banai have to say about this?"
"He stated that his government isn't interested in recovering the missile anymore and has suggested we sink the Contessa before she arrives at her destination."
"That seems like a reasonable request and it would keep the missile out of the wrong hands. But I take it you disagree," said Roan. "Does it have to do with Agent Grimes being onboard?"
"Sir," said the Skipper. "If you're going to give me the greenlight to launch a tomahawk, the window will close in five minutes. After that they'll be in the contested area and already I've got two Russia MiGs that took off from Sevastopol flying in our direction asking what we're doing in 'their' area."
"Colonel, I need a reason or I'm afraid I have to give the greenlight. I can't risk the lives of the many for the life of one agent."
"Roan, Chuck and Sarah are onboard too… I mean Agents Carmichael are onboard and Chuck has a plan so I recommend you let him run with it. He's never failed us yet."
"Commander stand down on the missile strike. Are you sure they're onboard?" said Roan as he looked over at the Major who just shrugged his shoulders.
"This is your call Agent Montgomery. You're the acting director not me," said the Major. "I can't make this decision for you."
"Yes, it is. And I don't want a repeat of Ettore's escape which brought us to this. So Colonel are you absolutely sure they're onboard?"
"Yes I am," said Casey. "And like I said before Chuck has a plan and I'd let him run with it. So what if you sink the ship they still have our nuke somewhere out there." All the people in the room suddenly got quiet. The only sound in the room was the humming noise of the machines. "Right now we know it's being held by a person we know but if you take him out who knows where it will end up and if we can track it down again before it's too late."
"Commander, you need to explain to your men that what the Colonel just said was classified and under no circumstances is it to get out or the individual or individuals will get a quick reassignment to Leavenworth. I take it that outburst was to get my attention. If the General were here, you'd be on the next flight for Supermax."
"But she's not and I had to keep you from doing something stupid. Chuck is our best bet for retrieving both missile and missile warhead. My only concern is I don't understand what Ettore is doing mixed up in this considering what we know he has with him."
"I think we should end this brief here before you give away all our national secrets. Colonel, I want you to take Agent Banai with you. This is the closest we've come to doing a joint op with his people. I ran this by State and they almost had kittens. We're hoping this will lay down the foundation for a new era of trust and cooperation."
"I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. Colonel out." The screen went blank. "So it looks like I've got a new baby to babysit. That's just lovely."
"Come on Colonel," said the Skipper. "Follow me and I'll get you some dry clothes and something hot to eat. You'll be in the flag officer's stateroom next to me."
"I need to square away Banai but dry clothes would make it more comfortable," said Casey as they both laughed.
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At the Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran the scheduled ATA airlines A320 departing from Batumi arrived on time. Banai's men and Abram waited letting all the passengers and crew depart the aircraft before they began to leave. They walked up the jet bridge to find their Director there waiting for them reading a newspaper.
"So I don't expect you thought our next meeting would be like this," said the Director as he walked up to Abram folding the newspaper. "Come on let's go I've got my car parked outside. We're going to take it to drive to the black site."
"But sir where are the rest of your men?" asked the one agent as the others looked around. There was no one there except for Director and by no one not a soul in sight.
"I couldn't take the risk. There's no telling how many other people like him there are floating around in our midst. But we'll find out soon enough won't we," said the Director as he opened a case he'd brought with him. "Here you said your weapons were confiscated back in Batumi." In the case were H&K MP5s and clips.
"You wouldn't have one for me in there, would you," said Abram then he laughed but no one laughed with him. "Come on it was funny. Have you guys lost your sense of humor?"
"We'll see if you keep up laughing when we get you to the black site. Then I might do something to laugh at. Keep him in the middle while we form a perimeter around him. No one gets past us in our circle for any reason and I mean anything. If a woman throws her baby at you, you put a round in her head and let the baby drop. Now let's head out."
As they moved through the airport more than one head turned but the Director was on point heading off any interference with airport security or the police. Once outside they got Abram in the Director's SUV then they quickly hit the road getting away from the airport.
"Phew, that wasn't so hard," said one of the men as he looked behind them and didn't see anyone following them. "We did it. So Abram what've you got to say now about your people?"
"I'd say don't count your chickens before they hatch we're not home free yet by a long shot and believe me when I tell you we were seen by my people. Right now they're regrouping but sooner or later they'll make themselves known and when they do then it will be too late."
"Like your plot to get rid of me," said the Director as he held up the notepad Abram had been writing in. "I have to hand it to you the plan is good. I see I need to modify my habits some and I really liked that coffee bar but I don't want Yazd to lose his bar or life because I like to take my coffee there. So looking through your notes whose initials are these next to the supplies you wanted to acquire?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. What you're holding there is a shopping list of things I needed to buy for my apartment."
"Really care to explain what you need with tungsten in your apartment or how about Semtex? Do you have a rat problem and you decided to use dime bombs to clear them out?"
"I've got nothing more to say to you except for one more thing and that is you know where you can put that notepad," said Abram. "I'm not saying another word."
"You should know by now they all say that but in the end sooner or later they all end up singing like a canary," said the Director. He was about to say something else when his phone began to ring. He looked at the number but didn't recognize it. At first he wasn't going to answer it but it was insistent so he answered it but put it on speaker.
"As-salāmu ʿalaykum Director, it's me Banai. I'm using another phone to call you because mine is out of commission because I fell with it into the Black Sea. I don't know what happened but I was told my team was turned around at the airport..."
"Waʿalaykumu s-salām, yes and they're with me. They were deported but they did that to bring a trophy home. You'll never guess who's in my car with me... Abram. They spotted him in the airport and gave pursuit. I'm going to have some problems with ATA airlines but nothing I can't handle..."
"But why was he in the airport to begin with and where was he going? I should tell you I'm onboard an American Destroyer still chasing after our missing missile. It's onboard a ship called the Contessa heading for Snake Island off the coast of Bulgaria. I would like some latitude to handle this. Things are much worse that we realized and there are things going on we knew nothing about. I have to underline they are serious."
"It would be easy for me to say go ahead and give myself plausible deniability. But I want to be kept in the loop. You seem to work well with these Americans and I won't be able to get your team back to your right away so for now you have my permission. You can't hint to me what these things we're unaware of are? It might be useful if I'm questioned."
"No, I can't not over an open line but believe me when I tell you they're serious. How are you going to justify this with the president and his people? You know they're people gunning to have you removed."
"You let me handle the politics and you take care of whatever it is you can't talk to me about. I'm going to be too busy anyway to talk to anyone. I'm going to personally handle Abram's interrogation. He's thrown down the glove and told me I can't get him to talk."
"Oh that wasn't very smart of him. I wish I were there to see you operate. Make sure my men watch they could learn a thing or two. I really have to go now I'll try to stay in touch as best as I can."
"Okay do what you can and if push comes to shove I'll back whatever play you chose," said the Director then the line dropped.
[Back on the Ship]
"Lieutenant you've been kind to me but can I ask two more favors," said Banai. "I'm going to need a blanket and I need to know what time sunrise is tomorrow morning."
"That's easy enough let me take you down to the wardroom and get you fed," said Marsh. Banai followed the Lieutenant to the Wardroom. They walked in then went into the pantry to look for the duty cook.
"Petty Officer I need to feed my friend here what can you rustle up for him?" said Marsh but the man looked over Banai.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to speak to the XO. He left word that if your guest came by I was to send down on the mess deck and they could find him something to eat in the galley."
"Listen I don't want to be a problem," said Banai. "I'm really not hungry. Maybe I can get a cup of tea and I'll be fine."
"Okay we can go down below and get you that tea but this isn't over. I'm going to have a chat with Colonel Casey. He can get things straightened out." Banai and the Lieutenant went down on the mess deck and Banai got his tea while the Lieutenant got a cup of coffee. Banai was sipping his tea sitting across from the Lieutenant when he noticed a sailor staring at him he looked at the man's name on his shirt and it read Dalir.
"Dalir is a Persian last name it means Brave," said Banai as he raised his cup of tea. "I'm sorry I couldn't help but notice you were looking at me."
"I'm sorry," said the young man as he started to get up but the Lieutenant stopped him then asked him to come over and join them. "I really shouldn't I've got work I need to do. My grandfather was Persian from a small village somewhere in the middle of the country but when the Shah was overthrown he had to leave. He used to tell us how much he liked it and wished he could go home but I don't see that happening."
"Why not? Things aren't the way they used to be. If it's any consolation for your grandfather I lost relatives too. It was a terrible time. Then came the war with Iraq I was in the university but got drafted. I went in with some close friends but I was the only one who came out. But all that's behind us now or I hope. Do you practice your daily prayers your Salat?" asked Banai the man looked away. "Don't worry I don't either especially when I'm out of country sometimes it's not practical. Anyway I plan on doing Fajir on the fantail. If you want, you can come and join me"
"There are a couple other brothers here onboard. We get together in after steering to read and talk. Do you mind if I bring them along?"
"Absolutely not bring them with you. However, you should do your wudu before you show up for prayer. I try to observe at least Fajir and Maghhrib but even that isn't always possible. I guess what I'm saying is you do the best you can do and hope it's enough."
"I really need to run," said the petty officer. "But it was nice meeting you and I'll see you at dawn on the fantail with my friends."
"Good I look forward to meeting them."