A/N This chapter is the beginning of Carmichael. There have been many hints in previous chapters that the Intersect was just a little bit wonky, but this was where I decided for whatever reason, to give that wonkiness a name. I took the Charles Carmichael persona that Chuck adopted back in First date and juiced it up a lot. I also use the Mad Dog alias, from Cougars. I always wanted them to do more with the Carmichael persona, so I did it myself. Rather than fall back on the wt/wt trope I gave them a similar problem but within the context of their marriage. Instead of wt/wt, I hit them with variants of the amnesia/alternate personality/evil twin tropes, all bundled into one.

"General, we have a situation."

Beckman reached for the call button. "Report, Colo–"

Her smartphone buzzed. "General, we have a situation."

"Chuck? How did you get my private–"

"It wasn't easy. I had to route it through your home landline first. But, really, that's–"

"You called my house?"

"General, we're wasting time. The Ring is planning to assassinate Goya!"

The General sat still for a second, rerouting her thoughts. "And you know this how?"

"They told me." Over the intercom came the sound of women's voices. "You're going to use Martin–"

"Morgan."

"Whatever."

"And make him kill that dictator guy?"

Beckman turned to her speaker phone. "Did you catch that , Colonel?"

"It explains what I just saw. Sarah and Carina had their hands up by the SUV. Anna collapsed, and they were forced to load her into the car. I'm in pursuit but I could use some backup."

"Did you use one of the Spider-trackers?"

Casey's teeth ground together so loudly his earpiece picked it up. "Yes, I managed to successfully plant one of the tag rounds, in spite of the extreme distance."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"You ever heard of a second car, numb-nuts?"

"You just go ahead, don't mind me."

"I never did, moron."

Beckman ignored the by-play. Her smartphone was buzzing at her, with a text message. "General, we have a situation! Chuck's spiking!"

She spoke as she typed. "Everybody, conference call in 1 minute." The second they were all off line, she called her aide. "Call the phone company, have them change my home number."

One minute later…

"Alright, all of you. To summarize the situation, Sarah's extraction flight from Hawaii was infiltrated by Ring agents, who plan to somehow force Mr. Grimes to assassinate Premier Goya at the medal presentation. The three ladies on the flight with him have been kidnapped and will likely be used as hostages. Any thoughts?"

"Why all three?" asked Ellie.

"Anna criticized Sarah in front of the agent who kidnapped them," said Chuck, "So they know about her connection to Morgan, which makes her a second handle on him."

"And leaves Carina twisting in the wind," said Casey. "If they get rid of any of them, they'll start with her, even if it's just to prove a point."

"We don't have much time, the ceremony is in a few hours. Premier Goya is understandably paranoid about being on U.S. soil."

Casey grunted a happy grunt.

"The clock is ticking, gentlemen. Ellie, I want you to give Chuck the full upload immediately."

"General, do you think that'll help? What could be in the Intersect about this?"

Beckman pursed her lips. "Maybe nothing, Chuck, but between you and the Intersect I'm not assuming anything. But you're right, a little insurance couldn't hurt. Colonel, can you get your team together? I have to make a call."

"You two, grab her, into the other car."

Carina grabbed Anna's feet. "Where are you taking us?"

Prince looked at the redhead with utter scorn. "You know, considering that you're by far the most expendable of your ridiculous crew, you might want to keep your mouth shut."

Considering that the odds were stacked against them , both in numbers and weapons, Carina decided to keep her mouth shut. It was a long shot anyway. Even if the Ice Queen had said anything, they were probably out of range of anything that Chuck could get a signal from, and she was starting to think he could get a signal from a bran muffin. They had to make a move, the second this hit was done they were dead themselves. As before, they sat her up in the middle of the back seat, head drooping.

Prince gestured imperiously at her henchmen. "Give them your cuffs." Turning to her prisoners, she said, "I'm going to do one nice thing today, and that's let you cuff yourselves. If you give me any trouble I'll let my guys handle it in the future. Got it?"

Sarah and Carina both recognized the ploy, but went along with it as their roles said they should. They cuffed themselves, snug but not tight, since sure enough she checked. "Good girls. In you go."

Anna made a noise as they climbed awkwardly into the oversized vehicle.

"Goddammit. Zip her, will you, Ian?"

The designated henchman reached over Carina and pushed Anna forward, where she stopped only because her head hit the seat. Pulling her hands behind her he zipped them in a plastic cable tie with casual brutality and pulled her upright again. The bad guys buckled themselves in and they drove away.

Carina noticed but didn't watch as Sarah slowly pulled one hand out from behind her and started doing something to Anna's bonds. No sense drawing attention to anything.

Immediately couldn't come soon enough for Chuck. Every second of delay gnawed at him. Ellie wanted him to take a rest break after she removed the smaller Intersect but even she cut a few corners in times of need. Chuck hadn't shown many ill effects from any of the downloads and it would take her a few minutes to set up a full upload anyway. "Can't this thing go any faster?"

"Chuck, you know better than I do just how fast this thing is," replied Ellie abstractedly over the speaker.
"The data has to be encrypted fresh each time, as I adjust the algorithms, but that's all I know about it."

It takes as long as it takes. Never had that knowledge, that the electronics didn't care, grate at him so much. "Can we get a treadmill in here, or something? I could really use something to do right now."

"You can't get it right now, Chuck," she reminded him distantly, watching three screens at the same time. "There's no time now, and once you're loaded up the door seals until it's out again, you know that."

"Yeah, I know that. But there's always tomorrow's disaster to plan for."

"Fine, then we'll get you tomorrow's treadmill to plan for it."

"It feels good to have a plan."

"It'll feel better to have Sarah back. Are you ready? The program's ready."

"I'm more than ready, sis. I'm waiting and I'm even eager." He shook his head. "God, who'd've thought I'd ever be eager for this?"

"Upload initiated."

The screens started to flicker, a display that Chuck always felt was more for special effects than anything else. Certainly the data didn't seem any different depending on the screens he looked at, and it wasn't like he could look at all of them. Maybe Ellie knew the reason for it, if there was one.

Today Chuck cared even less than usual. He kept his eyes wide open. He couldn't get the data in fast enough. Slowly he turned, looking at every screen. Somewhere on one of them was the answer they needed. Time…to…man…up.

"How long until Chuck is ready to join us, Dr. Woodcombe?"

"He's ready now, General. He's resting but as long as he's not required to flash immediately he can listen in with no problems."

"Good. Chuck?"

"Yes?" he said with a groan.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and suppose that you've read the manual for all the equipment in the room with you."

He laughed, which she took for a yes.

"On the microphone output there's a distortion function. When the conference begins I'll need you to turn it on. Not everyone will be cleared for your identity."

"Very good."

"Colonel Casey, what's your status?"

"We're good to go."

Someone knocked on her door. "Come." When she saw who it was she sent out the same text as before.

One minute later…

"Gentlemen, and Dr. Woodcombe, in the room with me is Agent Daniel Shaw of the CIA. Over the last five years he's become the CIA's leading expert on Ring strategies and organization. Since this operation is too new to be in most recent data, as was pointed out, I felt it best to have someone on hand who could provide analysis on the fly. Agent Shaw, on the phone we have Colonel John Casey of the United States Marines and the NSA."

"Agent Shaw." Casey sounded unimpressed, but then Shaw was CIA.

"Colonel Casey was on the ground when the abduction took place and has been coordinating offensive operations. As well we have Dr. Eleanor Woodcombe, head researcher of the Intersect Project."

"Agent."

His eyebrows rose at the sound of her voice. "The Intersect Project? I've heard of it but I thought it was destroyed." His voice was pleasant enough, bland, unemotional. Passionless.

"Anything they want destroyed so badly is worth keeping. Dr. Woodcombe is here as an observer." Of what or whom, Beckman didn't say.

Shaw's eyes moved to look at the far end of her desk, where a larger monitor was set up. "And who is this, may I ask?"

Beckman didn't like looking at the screen, so she didn't much, preferring to look at her guest. The screen was mostly dark, with a vague simulation of a face rendered in purple pixels, which somehow failed to keep track of movement in real time, smearing and blurring the face whenever the man moved. He wore a hat, it seemed, and a pair of sunglasses. "You may ask, Agent Shaw, but I can't tell you. The identity of this man is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the world."

"Does the mystery man have a name, at least?"

"My name, Agent Shaw, is Charles Carmichael, and this is my operation henceforth."

Agent Shaw abandoned his casual pose, not because of the name but because of the voice, powerful, confident, aware of what its owner could do. The name had become legendary, but the legends are easy to construct. That voice was the real thing. That voice was…doom to his enemies, and Shaw was very glad they were on the same side.

"With your permission, General?" The voice was not distorted, but Beckman could not have identified it as the voice of Charles Bartowski.

Shaw looked at the General, wondering if she could or would say no to that voice, deny the claim it had already made. She looked as if the only thing keeping her upright was the starch in her uniform. "Of course, Agent Carmichael," she mumbled, "Carry on."

"Colonel Casey, congratulations on your promotion."

Casey took a moment to respond. "Thanks…Mad Dog."

Shaw mouthed Mad Dog? at Beckman, but she just spread her hands.

"What's the latest on your end?"

"We tracked the original SUV to a CIA motor pool. It was clean, of course. Given the location and the timing, we're convinced they have the hostages in the city somewhere, so I've prepared an incursion team with a variety of assault scenarios depending on the actual building."

"Excellent. Agent Shaw, proceed to Colonel Casey's location. I want you available to provide analysis on site. Colonel, when Agent Shaw arrives, you will relinquish command of your unit to your SIC and proceed to the ceremony site."

Casey managed to restrict his question to a mildly guttural, "Why?" He was looking forward to the shooting.

"I need a sniper, Colonel, and I know you can get the job done."

"You want me to take out Grimes?"

"Not at all, Colonel. I want you to take out Goya. The only way we can keep him from being assassinated is if we kill him ourselves."