Don't own Chuck

As Sarah and Morgan were talking Chuck looked out the window and saw the Black Hawk had arrived at Varna and went into a hover over the landing spot. A military ambulance drove over with lights on as the chopper sat down on the tarmac then EMT's jumped out of the back and ran over to meet the bird as the pilot shut down the rotors.

"Well it looks like we're here," said Chuck. "Morgan, I want you to give me a call as soon as the doctor visits you."

"Don't worry I'm sure everything is going to be hunky-dory," said Ettore as he smiled up at them. Sarah grabbed hold of the handle to the hatch on the opposite side of the bird. As the EMTs opened the one side she opened the other shoving Chuck through out on the tarmac.

"Ouch, What the... Sarah, what are you doing?" said Chuck as he tumbled out. She jumped out after him.

"Saving your life that's Ettore," yelled Sarah as she drew her Smith & Wesson and fired at one of the EMTs who in the meantime pulled out H&K MP5s from under their jackets and returned fire.

"Boss, let's get out of here," yelled one of the false EMTS as he put a few rounds in the chopper's motor. The pilot and co-pilot had no choice but raise their hands to surrender. The three men retreated to the ambulance as two more jumped out to lay down cover fire.

"Out, out," yelled Chuck as he pulled the pilot and co-pilot out. "Stay down. Sarah, they're getting away.

"Not if I can help it. Take out Ettore," yelled Sarah but Chuck hesitated. "Chuck that's not Morgan shoot him or he'll get away."

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Razhib ran to the Old City gate he knew it was impossible to make it in the time Ali had allotted him but he had to try. He ran as fast as he could through the crowds of tourists slipping and sliding on the slick cobblestone streets. Ali was having a good laugh thinking about how he was running Razhib ragged. It reminded him of things he'd done to him in their Master's home. He even rang the pay phone up early to make Razhib even more anxious then hung up as soon as he heard him pick up.

"Here you can listen to your white knight," said Ali proud of himself as he called back putting it on speaker for Miriam to hear. The phone rang then Razhib picked up they could hear him pant in the receiver. "You're late," said Ali as he they heard Razhib try to get his voice which made Ali smile. "I was about to make a call to North Africa and arrange transport for my merchandise."

"You knew it was impossible for me to make it here when you set me off, so don't give me any crap," said Razhib as he caught his breath. "Remember I still have what you want. You keep screwing with us and it'll end up in the bay."

"And you remember I have something that you want too right here with me. Now that we both can agree that we each have something we want shall we continue on with this. You're almost there just a little bit more and this will be over with…"

"No… No, I won't move a muscle until I have proof of life. How do I know you still have Miriam and that she's still alive? If you want me to do anything else I need you to prove to me she's alive," said Razhib then he hung up.

Ali looked over at Miriam perplexed then back at the phone. He was flabbergasted he didn't know what to say or do other than to dial Razhib right back.

"I know you didn't just hang up on me. Because that would've been a very stupid move on your part," said Ali as he tried not to lose control of his temper.

"You heard me I'm not doing anything else until I know Miriam is alive and well," said Razhib then he hung up again. This time Ali didn't have to think he hit speed dial and called him straight back.

"Stop hanging up. I'm the one who's making up the rules of this game not you and I'm telling you…" he started to say but Razhib hung up on him again."

"What's the matter with your friend? Doesn't he know who he's messing with," said Ali as he looked over at Miriam who was smiling back. She could tell Razhib was getting to him. "I wouldn't be so happy if I were you. You're the one I could take this out on." But Miriam continued smiling. She knew he knew he couldn't and that was eating him up inside. "Let's try this again," said Ali as he dialed Razhib back.

"Stop hanging up," said Ali. He could hear Razhib was about to hang up again. "Okay, okay hold on... one moment and I'll let you talk to her. But neither of you try any funny business I'm listening.

"Miriam, are you all right? How are you holding up? Just hang in there and I'll get you out of this I promise."

"I'm fine. I don't understand what's going on. Who is this man and what does he want with you? He says he knows you from Morocco. Is that true?"

"I'll explain everything later," said Razhib but Ali had enough. This was taking away from his fun and he was calling the shoots not Razhib.

"That's enough you've got what you wanted," said Ali as interrupted their conversation. "You've said enough even too much..."

"Be careful this guy's not playing with a full deck. He's cr…" was all she could get out before he put the gag back in her mouth.

"I've given you what you asked for now let's continue with the game. You need to go to Slobode park. There you'll find an envelope with instructions inside and this time I expect you to follow them to the letter. There will be consequences if you deviate from them."

"I won't promise anything," said Razhib then he hung up on Ali and ran. "You can tell Jack thanks for the tips I think I've just given him a good taste of his own medicine," said the boy as Mike and Margo listened from the van.

[In the surveillance van]

Margo and Mike heard everything. She looked back a Mike sitting in the back and he signaled her to wait as he worked magic using the mainframe to filter out background noise.

"I'll explain later. Hey guys anyone feel like a friendly game of cards afterwards. I think I feel my luck changing."

"Can we concentrate on the mission at hand? I expect a full write up on the advice Jack gave him and I don't want a word, a comma or a period left out. Any luck tracing that phone call?"

"No, the conversations weren't long enough but they are coming from this area. I had a guy go into the pub and take photos of the nanny cam they were talking about."

"And what did you find out?" she asked as she move in the back to look over his should to see the monitor.

"This make and model has a range of this diameter," said Mike as he drew a circle on the digital map he had of the city. I'm looking now in this circle for any unusual spikes in electrical usage as well as water consumption but so far nothing."

"I wish Chuck or Sarah were here. I can't help but think we're missing something that will help us. I guess we could go walk our bomb dogs around to try to sniff Ali's safe house."

"But we risk being seen by Ali and we don't want that. Not if we're going to get Miriam and Razhib out safely. Who knows what a nutjob like Ali would do or will do if he's cornered."

"I think the elevator was a good example. When we find this safe house, we need to go in with extreme caution. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have the place booby trapped."

"Any word where Chuck and Sarah are? I can have Jack drive to the airport to whisk them back here if we need to pick them up."

"They know how to get here on their own and I've fully briefed them about what's going down so no we don't need to worry about them."

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Things got crazy on deck at Varna quickly. The ambulance that was sent to pick up Morgan turned out to have been hijacked by Ettore's men as an extraction plan. Sarah caught on when Ettore tripped over what was on the list which resulted in a gunfight around the Black Hawk. Lead started flying as each side took up positions on the opposite side of the chopper. Chuck managed to get the pilot and co-pilot out of harm's way as Sarah laid down cover fire. Ettore used this as an opportunity to make a run for the ambulance but with a bum leg he wasn't fast enough.

"Ettore's making a run for it. I've got him," said Chuck as he fired a dart after shoving the co-pilot down. He caught him square in the back. Ettore managed to stagger forwards a few steps before dropping face first on the tarmac but he'd made it close enough to the ambulance for one of his own to pulled him inside. His men beat feet back to their ride firing wildly as they retreated.

"They're getting away," yelled Chuck.

"Not if I can help it," said Sarah as she put two rounds through the back of the open ambulance into the driver's seat. "And that's it I'm out."

The back doors closed as the drive's door opened and a body came flying out then the ambulance sped away. Chuck and Sarah walked out to watch the ambulance peel out knowing there was little they could do to stop it now.

"Don't say it... I know what you want to say. If I had a real gun or I hadn't frozen then Ettore wouldn't have gotten away. He'd be pushing up daisies right now."

"That sounds more like Casey. No, I didn't want say that and I like you just the way you are... dart gun included. I don't want you to change Chuck... I want you to always be my Chuck... the one I love."

She was about to kiss him when suddenly they heard the sound of a chopper swooping in and the rat-tat tat of a fifty-caliber machine gun. Looking over at the ambulance that was trying to make a getaway it was stopped dead in its tracks with smoke and steam bellowing out from under the hood. Nearby hovering was another Black Hawk with its weapons trained on the ambulance.

"This is your one and only warning. Get out of the ambulance toss your weapons on the ground then lie down on the tarmac with your hands and feet spread out," Casey said through a bullhorn from the chopper.

"Way to go John Casey," said Chuck. Then he and Sarah ran over to ambulance as the chopper sat down to make sure Ettore was taken into custody.

Less than a half hour later they were all on a charter plane headed for Kotor in Montenegro. Chuck and Sarah were in the aft section of the cabin behind a curtain talking with Margo while Morgan and Casey sat in the cabin watching Ettore sleep. He was still out from Chuck's dart.

"Boy is he going to have rude awakening," said Morgan as he watched Ettore snore studying him. "You know I don't see how you guys can get us confused. I mean just look at him we don't look a thing like each other except for facial hair maybe."

"I think your bruised shins disprove your affirmation but just so for the rest of the trip we don't have any mishaps and because this guy is slippery than an eel we'll fix that," said Casey as he pulled out an indelible marker.

"John, hold up. What are you going to do with that?" said Morgan as he watched John lean Ettore's head back to get a better angle. "Wait a minute you can't do that?"

"I can either do this to him or to you? How do your shins feel? Do you still want me to stop?" said Casey as he popped the cap off and it fell on the floor. Morgan remained silent. "I didn't think so. Why don't you make yourself useful and find that cap?"

"What are you two up to," said Chuck as he walked back in the main cabin holding Sarah's hand. They saw Casey step back to admire his calligraphy and saw what he'd done.

"John was that absolutely necessary," said Sarah as Chuck laughed. She gave him a look. "Don't encourage him. That wasn't called for."

"What? We have idiot one there," said Casey as he pointed at Morgan. "And we have idiot two here. So now we can tell them apart."

"Idiot what? I'm not the one who loaded him on the chopper and I'm still going with we don't look alike," said Morgan as he sat there looking like he was staring into a mirror except now his reflection had 'Idiot II' written across his forehead.

"Okay guys whatever. John, Sarah's not wrong," said Chuck. "But we've got other things to think about. This is the plan... Razhib is out in Old Town right now being lead on a sort of treasure hunt by Ali but in this hunt, there is no pot of gold at the end where X marks the spot..."

"But it's a smart move on Ali's part," said Casey. "You get your target to move from place to place and see if any familiar faces start popping up with them. If they do, then you know the target isn't alone."

"But you have to be able to watch the target to do that," said Sarah. "That's the weak link in Ali's plan. Chuck has a plan. Go ahead and explain Sweetie." But as he was about to the screen flickered on the monitor then Beckman appeared.

"Oh no, I don't think we're going to like this," said Chuck as soon as he saw her face. Sarah immediately put her hand over his mouth.

"Hello General, we weren't expecting to hear from you yet. At least not until we got to Kotor and took care of the situation there." The General raised an eyebrow as she looked at Chuck.

"Yes about that I heard you guys finally got a hold of Ettore after that mishap on the Contessa," said the General. "I'm having your plane redirected to our black site in Poland where we..."

"But General didn't you hear Sarah? We need to get to Kotor and help take care of that mess. Razhib is in danger and indirectly so are our children."

"And the station chief there is handling the situation. If I didn't have confidence in her she wouldn't be there. You know we do have other agents besides yourself. I'm sorry Chuck I have to reroute your plane, I truly am. I know how you feel..."

"I don't think you do," said Sarah. "I'm sorry I've given a lot to this agency but I'm not going to stand aside when my children are involved."

"Just calm down you two and take a step back. I normally don't explain myself but I can see this is different. I just got word through the grapevine that there is a secret deal between Ettore and some government officials in Montenegro to have him taken into their custody once your plane lands."

"No, we can't let that happen," said Morgan. "If they grab him afterwards he'll make a convenient escape. Then we'll be back at square one again."

"You know I could just shoot right now in the head then they can have what's left," said Casey. "See Grimes, I bet you're happy I marked the real Ettore now."

"What if we pulled over then Sarah and I got off without landing," said Chuck. The General raise her eyebrow and everyone looked at him.

"Okay you've got me curious," said the General. "If anyone else had said something like that to me I'd have their head examined."

"What I mean is there are chutes in the back. We could make a fly over the city then we jump from the landing gear wells. The plane never physically touches down then Casey and Morgan can deliver Ettore to Poland per your orders."

"Let me thing about this for a second, so you say the plane never lands... which means no one can take Ettore from us and by the time anyone figures out what's going on it will be too late to do anything."

"That's exactly what I'm saying. My plan makes sense if you think about it," said Chuck. Sarah nodded as she put her arm around him.

"Well, this is against my better judgement but okay. I'm not sure what you think you can do to help but go ahead. If I were Chief Silverman I might even get mad at your butting in like this. But that's between you and her. Go for it and if there's nothing else..."

"Well there is one last thing they need to have the Intersect removal device standing by when Ettore gets there. I'm not sure how much damage it's done to his brain but keeping him sedated is for his own good as well as ours."

"I'll see to it that it's standing by. Beckman out."

"Well that went better than I thought it would," said Sarah. Chuck nodded. Just then Ettore began to moan and acted like he was coming to. Casey immediately pumped two darts in him.

"John, one would've been enough. You can't tell me that doesn't do any harm to you."

"You want to find out keep it up. I'm sorry but this just doesn't scratch the itch like my Sig does. Maybe I could..."

"No John. Mr. Sig and his little friends stay in the holster."

"Buzz kill."

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[Back in the safe house]

"I won't promise anything? That's what he said right? What kind of answer is that? I swear I'm going to kill him when this is all over. How dare that little upstart say what he did to me? The little Bedouin camel herder who does he think he is," said Ali as he went into a tirade. "He should respect me I'm not some lap dog like him. If we were back in Morocco, I'd make him pay... oh would I make him pay."

Miriam started laughing at Ali. She couldn't help herself and she knew it was going to get her in trouble but she didn't care. The man was so self-conceited and just an all-around butthole that she couldn't help laughing how Razhib was putting him in his place.

"What are you laughing at anyway," said Ali as he ripped her gag out of her mouth. "I want to hear it. Tell me if you've got the guts," he said as he plopped his pistol on the table in front of her.

"What's that for? Do you think you're going to intimidate me with that? Well you can guess again. You're so full of yourself and the funny part is you don't even see it which makes it even funnier and you even more pathetic. So what if you're Persian and he's not who gives a big woopty doo. You still put your pants on one leg at a time like the rest of us common mortals..."

"Just shut up I don't want to hear your crap anymore," said Ali as he tried to put the gag back in but she shook her head fighting him.

"Yellow coward," she got out before the gag went back in and she got a slap across the face. She continued laughing at him as blood trickled down her nose and her eyes watered. He might've gotten his lick in but she did too and she was proud of it.

"I don't want to hear any complaining afterwards you did that to yourself. You should've kept that trap of yours shut. Don't look at me like that you got what was coming to you," he said. She wanted to point out to Ali that soon he'd get what he deserved too and payback was a mother. If Razhib had anything to do with it Ali would not only get payback but there'd be interest with it too.

"Razhib should be in the park soon," said Ali as he looked at his watch. "I've got to duck out for a little while. You just sit here and don't go anywhere." She watched him pick up what looked like a stuffed bear then left. She fought against the roped but she was tied in too tight.

[In the park]

Razhib ran in the park then started looking around for an envelope. But he didn't see anything out in the open lying about. There was a homeless man sleeping on a bench with newspapers wrapped over him. Then when he got closer he saw a manila envelope protruding from under him. He was sleeping on it.

"Crap what do I do now?" said Razhib as he studied the situation. First he looked around and making sure there was no around. Then he quietly walked over and gently pulled the envelope out from under the man.

"Yes, I did it," he said to himself as he stepped backwards to get away from the man. But he forgot to look where he was going and stepped on a dead twig. It may a loud crack.

"Who's there," yelled the man as he jumped up from the bench. Newspaper flew everywhere as the vagrant yelled at the top of his lungs. "Thief!"

Razhib did the only thing he could do, he ran. Putting as much distance as he could between him and the old man.

"Come back here," yelled the old man as he chased him. "Stop that thief."

"I'm not a thief the envelope is addressed to me," yelled Razhib as he ran but he wasn't going to stop to argue the point. He had the envelope and that was all that mattered.