Hello again. It took some time, but things have calmed down enough for me to put out the next chapter. I originally planned to make this chapter a bit longer and cut it at a different point, but time was not on my side of late. Plus, I wanted to get in this new chapter before I moved to a new place later this week. I also tried to mix things up a bit from the show canon (still the property of NBC and Fake Empire Productions). Not sure if I did that well, but hopefully people will review and tell me one way or another.

BTW, I know it looks like Professor Flemming's name is spelled wrong, but I checked with the episodes and the name plaque on his desk spelled it that way. So blame Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak for that. After all, I still blame them for thinking there is such as thing as the "Moonlighting Curse."

Please enjoy this chapter and please give reviews. Thanks!

Palo Alto, CA
October 13, 2015
9:45 AM PDT

"This is Glass Castle, reporting hostile contact!"

Professor George Flemming cursed his stupidity. That assassin found him while giving a lecture. He didn't think his actions were being watched or his computer monitored. He was just a scientist who worked for the CIA with a cover job at Stanford. But he had been in the business long enough where he should have known better.

"I made a mistake, Black Coat. I copied intel for myself onto a disc. They're after it. I know I shouldn't have…"

The incessant pounding on his office door cut off his cry for help. He gathered as many file folders as he could and escaped through a trap door in the back of the office just as Magnus broke in.

West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA
October 13, 2015
12:00 PM PDT

"Are you all right, Sarah?"

"Did you get injured on the set?"

"Where is Charles?"

"Are you two still together?"

Sarah shook her head in frustration as she was wheeled from the labs towards an examination room. "I'm fine. Just overworked. And of course we're still together! You don't break up with someone you really like after only a couple of weeks."

"Then why isn't he here?"

"He's avoiding all of you, just like we told him to," Jimmy said, acting extremely upset. At least Sarah hoped he was just acting. "He's hasn't been in the spotlight very long. Do you really think we'd throw him to the wolves like that? Or did you forget that BS you tried of hooking me up to Britney Spears last year? Christ, even Howard Stern has more tact than most of you."

Sarah entered the room with Jimmy right on her heels. The security people they brought with them created a rather menacing barrier the reporters weren't going to get through, so the majority of them started to leave…until they saw Ellie Bartowski head towards the examination room. But she walked past them without even acknowledging their presence nor did she respond to a single question being shouted at her.

Sarah got up from the wheelchair and lay on the examination table while Jimmy slumped into the other chair in the room. The orderly who wheeled Sarah into the room exited.

"You still won't let that go," Sarah said with a smirk.

"You take one goddamn picture in Vegas and everybody thinks you're doing her," Jimmy growled. "She's a fan of the show and asked for a selfie. I have a picture of me and Matt Damon at a charity event in Boston. Was I sleeping with him, too?"

"No, but your interview on Jimmy Kimmel was so much funnier."

He rolled his eyes. "That's the only time I get to be on the talk shows: when they have something to humiliate me with or to plug the show. You wear some elegant outfit or something that shows some leg and they're begging you to be the first guest."

"I'm the title character!" Sarah said in exasperation. "I'm the star of the show. I have to do them, but they need another person from the show to also do interviews. It's not my fault Casey and Carina don't like the spotlight. I know you hate it just as much but you're good with interviews. You're better than me, in fact. You can think on your feet and are way more entertaining."

"Yeah, Secret Agent Jimmy Slade," Jimmy grumbled. "Now doing two shows a night at the Tropicana. Don't forget to tip your servers!"

She looked at Jimmy for a moment. "Speaking of which, why are you here? Where is Chuck?"

"He's with Case and Carina. Hopefully he can flash on this S.O.B. who tried to kill you. The guy decided to off himself rather than talk. We're playing for keeps now. And we're going to need Ellie's help to keep a lid on this, so I thought we'd get more cooperation if I talked to her. You saw how she was all over me the other night."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. "YOU came up with the idea to charm someone? Now I know we're in uncharted territory."

"We need her. I told the EMTs who brought you here to give the blood sample directly to her and that she should analyze it herself. I'm hoping she'll appreciate us being honest with her. We can't let anybody know why you're really here. The shinola would really hit the fan if that happened."

Of course, Jimmy left out the most important reason he was here instead of Chuck. The way Sarah looked at Chuck when she found out he saved her life may have ended any hope of Sarah getting some distance from him. Not that Jimmy could blame her for that, but it was an uncontrollable factor that could put everyone in even greater danger.

The door opened and Ellie entered. She waited for the door to close so nobody outside would hear her. "What is going on? Is Chuck in danger?"

"Not at all, Dr. Bartowski," Jimmy said. "But we wanted you to hear this from us directly. We owe you that much."

Ellie opened the folder she was carrying to the analysis on Sarah's blood sample. "Who poisoned you?"

"We think it was that stalker the FBI had warned us about," Sarah replied. "We get them from time to time. I've had a few. So have Casey and Jimmy."

"Carina gets the most, but she thinks it's a compliment," Jimmy quipped.

Sarah gave him a dirty look before turning back to Ellie. "You've taken psychology classes, Doctor. You know how some people can become obsessed. This stalker had been following me for months, but I guess seeing your brother with me set him off."

Ellie exhaled slowly. "Look, I know this is not your fault, and I don't want to tell him to stop seeing you because of this but I don't want him being put in danger."

"I don't blame you, Doc," Jimmy replied, attempting a soothing voice and giving that 'piercing eyes' look Sarah taught him. "The last thing any of us want is to put you, Chuck, or anybody else in harm's way. Fortunately, we've doubled security around the studio. We've received no new reports of anybody having a stalker. And unless the judge at the arraignment is the biggest idiot in the world, this bastard won't be getting out of jail. Chuck is safe, I promise. And we'll do whatever it takes to keep it that way."

Sarah gave a little smile she hoped Ellie wouldn't see. Through all the lying Jimmy just did, the most important thing he did say was the truth. That's why she was proud to have Casey, Carina, and Jimmy as partners and friends. The four of them would do anything for each other. And she knew that included protecting Chuck.

"Thank you, Jimmy," Ellie said. "And thanks to both of you for coming to me directly about this."

Sarah looked down at the ground. "We should be thanking you. Chuck was the one to save my life. And it's pretty obvious where he got his penchant for heroics from."

Ellie smiled. "I'm glad he did. He really likes you. And I can see why."

Sarah smiled warmly at that thought, but Jimmy clamped up behind Ellie. As if Chuck saving her life hadn't complicated things enough already.

Ellie's phone began to beep. "Dr. Bartowski, we have a Code Blue in your section. Walk-in from the street."

The smile on Ellie's face disappeared. "I'll be right back."

Ellie rushed out of the room to find the source of the Code Blue. She found a man staggering through the halls who appeared to be disoriented.

"I need a gurney and a crash cart, STAT!" she yelled. She grabbed the man's shoulders to stop him as two orderlies came up to her from behind with a gurney. She checked the man's pupils and felt for a heartbeat.

"Get him into ICU Room Four," she ordered the two men with the gurney, who grabbed the man and placed him on it. Nobody noticed the man slip a locket inside of Ellie's lab coat. The three ran down the hall with the man to the ICU.

O.C. Studios - Hollywood, CA
October 13, 2015
12:00 PM PDT

Compared to where he was now, Chuck would take that crazy ride in the limousine any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Casey and Carina brought him to see the dead body of the man who tried to kill Sarah. It was bad enough he was still freaking out over how close she came to death only a couple of hours ago. Now he had to look at a dead body live and in person. This was way worse than just looking at pictures of dead people. The man still had streaks of blood along his mouth from whatever he injected himself with to prevent being interrogated.

"The driver's license was forged," Carina told Chuck and Casey. "They ran his fingerprints through NCIC and the NSA databases but they haven't gotten any hits yet."

"Bartowski, what about you?" Casey asked.

"What, do I have to look at him? It's kind of creepy. There's a reason why I never watched CSI."

"We need information and we need it fast," Casey snarled. He took a moment to calm himself, remembering Chuck was still new to all of this. "This wasn't some obsessed fan who attacked her. He chose to commit suicide rather than be taken. He went after Sarah and I want to know why."

Chuck exhaled to steady himself. Casey was right, and he wanted to find out why Sarah was attacked as much as her team did. He looked closely at the face of the dead man.

"Nothing's happening," Chuck said, disappointed he couldn't help. "I'm sorry."

"What about the thing he injected himself with?" Carina asked.

Casey put on a pair of gloves and carefully retrieved the needle and syringe from the man's coat. He laid it on top of the corpse and Chuck had a look. He started to feel a bit squeamish when the Intersect kicked in. He saw a chemical equation, an organizational flowchart, and the face of a man he had never seen before. But the man had seen him. It was the same man at the nightclub.

"What is it, Chuck?" Carina asked.

"I'm not…I saw a chemical equation which I think was the poison the guy injected into himself. Definitely man-made and designed to kill. Then I saw a bunch of names on a chart and the picture of a guy. Scary guy, had a long scar on his face."

"No names you recognized?" Casey asked.

"No, but it must be some kind of organization if I saw a chart."

Casey's and Carina's phones beeped. "Beckman's ordered us back to base and to bring Chuck," Carina said.

"Base? What base?"

"During the week, we set up in the room across from Sarah's at the hotel," Casey said. "We're wall to wall with computers, surveillance equipment, weapons, the works. Easier to have it there than the studio. Fewer civilian factors to deal with."

Casey grabbed his jacket and tossed Chuck's to him. "Let's go."

West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA
October 13, 2015
1:30 PM PDT

Riordan Payne walked through the halls of the hospital, grateful he thought ahead to create a fake hospital ID and steal a lab coat. He knew Mason Whitney was here somewhere but he wasn't sure whether Whitney had the locket with the nuclear arsenal codes on his person yet. The truth serum Payne dosed him with did its job in forcing Whitney to admit who he was and where he had hidden the locket. But since the poison needed time to take effect and then only gave the victim a few hours after that before it killed them, time was of the essence.

He walked past one of the rooms in the ICU, the only one that was occupied. He saw a female doctor and several nurses surrounding Whitney. Judging by the intense looks on everyone's face, they were likely trying to revive him. Good luck with that, he thought. Only the antidote would save Whitney at this point.

The female doctor moved around the bed and Payne saw the name on her photo ID. He would pay Dr. Eleanor Bartowski a visit to see what she knew.

Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA
October 13, 2015
1:15 PM PDT

"We have a situation," General Beckman began over teleconference. "A CIA asset sent out an emergency call earlier today. Attempts at finding him thus far have proven fruitless."

An image of Professor Flemming appeared on the monitor. "No way," Chuck said breathlessly.

"Did you just have a flash?" Carina asked.

"I don't have to. That guy was my professor at Stanford." Chuck stared at the monitor in complete shock. "Wait, asset? He's CIA? My professor was a spy?"

"CIA recruits on campuses across the country," Casey said. "Sometimes looking for promising agents like Walker and Miller, some for experimentation like Slade was. Professor Flemming is a company scientist, not an agent."

Graham played the audio conversation Flemming made asking for help. "Do we know what intel he copied?" Carina asked.

"No," Beckman replied.

"He's handled many sensitive projects over the years," Graham added. "Any leak could prove devastating."

"How can we help?" Casey asked.

"Flemming has contacts in L.A. If we find him, you can extract him."

"We'd like your help on this, Chuck," Beckman said.

Chuck looked back and forth between Casey and Carina. He could actually feel the proverbial wind going out of his sails. "Look, I…I really don't think I'm your go-to guy on this one."

"Your knowledge of Flemming and Stanford is key here," Graham replied. "We only have his official reports. You have a personal connection."

"Yeah, I do have a personal connection. A very bad personal connection. Look, you guys have the file, so you know all about Flemming and what happened to me. The guy kicked me out of school."

"He's one of us, Bartowski," Casey said. "Believe it."

Chuck looked at the ground. "Maybe you can find somebody else to help you this time. Maybe just this once."

Chuck stood slowly and walked out of the room with his entire body slouched.

Echo Park – Los Angeles, CA
October 13, 2015
5:00 PM PDT

After the events of the day, Chuck just wanted some peace and quiet. Naturally, he wasn't that lucky.

Devon and his UCLA fraternity brothers were whooping it up in the courtyard, complete with a barbecue and a game of catch with a football. Unfortunately, Chuck forgot about the UCLA-Stanford game Thursday night.

"Hey Chuck! Go deep, brah!" Devon shouted to him as he threw the ball. True to how the day went, Chuck was drilled in the groin.

"Oooh, right in the pills!" one of Devon's fraternity brothers exclaimed.

Devon ran over to Chuck to see if he was all right. "No, no!" Chuck shouted. "Please don't…please don't touch me."

"Chuck, come on man!" Devon said to him as he pulled him back up. "Let me make it up to you, bro. Get up. I got you a ticket for the game. We're driving up there tomorrow afternoon before traffic hits and then spend a long weekend."

"Wow, thanks," Chuck barely eked out. "But, uh, I want to be there when they release Sarah from the hospital. And no offense, but I'd rather get hit in the produce section again than go back to that place."

Devon shrugged. "Suit yourself. Now I've lost both Bartowskis for the weekend."

"What do you mean?"

"Ellie had a tough patient to deal with today and there were some complications, so she won't be able to drive up there with us. But dude, you've got to let that go. What happened at Stanford was years ago."

"Yeah, I know what happened," Chuck replied, unable to get the bitterness out of his voice. "What happened was I was kicked out for something I didn't do. So me and Stanford? We're officially done."

Chuck walked into the apartment and fell onto his bed. Harry Tang couldn't dream up a bad day for him of this magnitude. Sarah almost died, some sort of organization was in on it, he had to get close to a corpse, everybody wanted him to help with Professor Flemming and didn't care he was the one to kick him out of Stanford, and he got drilled in the balls by his sister's boyfriend.

Harry Tang's ban on Red Bull at the store didn't seem so bad anymore.

He rubbed his eyes and stood, going to the closet and pulling out a box buried deep inside. Maybe Devon was right. Maybe it was time to let Stanford go. He managed to survive without it, and now he was helping others thanks to one of the hottest actresses in Hollywood and her friends, who just happen to be secret agents. There was no way in hell he could have dreamt that up while taking those Electrical Engineering classes at Stanford.

In the box, he pulled out the picture of his fraternity brothers from Gamma Delta Phi. He remembered that day a dozen years ago as if it just happened. All of his fraternity brothers were there to say goodbye to him. All of them were sorry to see him go...except Bryce. Bryce was the one to turn him in and slept with Jill to boot. Chuck never felt so betrayed in his life

"I don't get it, Bryce. Why are you doing this?"

"You did this to yourself."

Chuck walked to the trash can in the apartment complex and angrily threw the contents of the box into it. He reached down to pick up his Stanford University ID, which had fallen to the ground. He took a look at it.

He panicked and headed for his car to drive back to the hotel. He pounded on the door to the new conference room. Casey, Carina, and Jimmy were there.

"What?" Casey said in a none-too-happy tone of voice.

Chuck held up his ID. "I just flashed on myself. Why am I in the Intersect?"

Casey stepped aside to let Chuck in. "What are you talking about?" Carina asked.

"I saw my picture, my school records, everything. How did the government even know about me?"

"No idea," Jimmy replied. "None of us had even heard of you before we arrived in Burbank."

"Wait, could this have to do with Professor Flemming? You said he was CIA."

"Possibly, but we'd have to find him first."

"And that won't be easy," Casey said, turning a monitor towards Chuck. "We just got new intel that Flemming is being hunted by this man: Magnus Einersson. A student in his class IDed the man. He's an Icelandic spy."

"Iceland does espionage?" Chuck said in disbelief.

"Magnus buys and sells intel to the highest bidder. Iceland isn't 'officially' aware of his activities."

"According to the intel, a crossbow is his weapon of choice," Carina said.

"What? Slingshot too ineffective?"

"We find Flemming, we bring him in," Casey said. "You'll come along. You're a friendly face. The professor sees you, he'll be more inclined to cooperate."

"How do we even know he's here in L.A.?"

The computer Jimmy was sitting at beeped. "We do now. Just got a hit off of a CALTRANS traffic cam. I'm sending the plate number and make of the car to the state to get an address."

"Chuck, we need this," Carina said. "On this job, you have to put your personal feelings aside on a daily basis. Casey's had to arrest his former sensei, I had to pose as a fiancé to stop a dangerous arms dealer, and Jimmy once had to rescue an asset who used to beat him up all the time in grammar school."

Chuck looked at Jimmy in incredulity given Jimmy's appearance now. "You used to get beaten up all the time?"

Jimmy waved it off. "Long story, you don't want to hear it. But Carina's right. Plus, maybe Flemming has some answers for what happened to you at Stanford. If we can find him, maybe you can make peace with that part of your life."

Chuck took a long exhale and nodded. "OK, I'll do my best."

"That's all we need," Jimmy replied. "But now for the tough part. Who gets to tell Sarah she has to stay in the hospital and out of this operation?"

Chuck, Casey, and Carina all looked at Jimmy, who quietly growled. "Saw that one coming a mile away," he muttered in disgust.

"What?" Chuck asked. "Will she be that upset?"

Casey shook his head. "Walker's a professional. She'll understand."

West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA
October 13, 2015
8:30 PM PDT

"Hey!"

"Not a chance in hell!"

Jimmy couldn't have ducked and dove faster if someone aimed a tennis cannon at him. He delivered the plans the team drew up for finding Flemming to Sarah, and now anything not nailed down in her hospital room was coming at his head.

"It's a simple extraction. Casey and Carina can handle it!"

"You did this without telling me? AND you decided I should spend the night in the hospital?"

Sarah tried to throw the vase of flowers the team got for her at Jimmy. He dove towards her bed, popped back up, grabbed both of her wrists, and crossed them over each other.

"In case you may have forgotten, someone tried to kill you today! They went specifically after you! They could have killed Chuck, Carina, or me, but they didn't. They wanted you dead. Can you guarantee someone won't take another shot? Only this person might miss and get one of us? Especially Chuck?"

Sarah probably could have gotten out of the wristlock Jimmy had on her…if he wasn't 100 pounds heavier, she wasn't lying down, and she had no qualms about inflicting permanent damage on him. Well, the last one wouldn't be a huge problem apart from the paperwork.

"You didn't refer to him as an asset, either," Sarah said quietly.

Jimmy sighed and let go of her wrists. "True. But after what he did for you earlier today, I think we're past the point of no return."

Sarah sat up in the bed. Jimmy cautiously backed away, and Sarah gave him a dirty look. She buried her face in her hands. "You were right. I'm letting myself get too close to him. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Nothing at all. You had a tough time growing up. It's no secret your pattern is an attraction to guys who treat you as you want to be treated. The way you deserve to be treated. You thought Bryce was like that but you were wrong. You thought I was like that but you were REALLY wrong."

Sarah reached forward and smacked Jimmy upside the head. "Moving on," she said. "So you think Chuck might be another such person?"

Jimmy shrugged. "I have no idea. And I hate to say it, but either you can love him or you can protect him. But you can't do both."

Sarah sank back on the bed again, her mind racing in all directions. She remembered what happened with Bryce and it broke her heart. She thought Jimmy was the solution to Bryce, but she was grateful now he had transitioned so easily into 'friend zone' material. Now she was dealing with an asset who cared more about others than himself, particularly her. A guy who wore his heart on his sleeve and wasn't guarded like so many of the people she had encountered in her life. There was no doubt in her mind now there was something special about Chuck Bartowski.

"What do you think?" she asked Jimmy.

"It's your decision to make," he replied. "We'll help you as best as we can, but there's great risk no matter what you decide."

A knock on the door interrupted them. Ellie walked in still wearing her lab coat, and she looked exhausted.

"Is everything OK, Doc?" Jimmy asked.

She shook her head sadly. "The guy I had to leave you earlier to take care of? He didn't make it. I don't understand. We did every last thing we could for him, but he still didn't pull through. I'm hoping the autopsy will yield us some results tomorrow."

Ellie took a look around the room. "Is the hospital food that bad around here, Sarah?"

Sarah looked down and smiled. "No, I'm sorry. That's my fault. I was told I had to stay in the hospital overnight and I didn't react very well to that. I'm a workaholic when it comes to that show."

"THAT I can attest to," Jimmy said.

"Hopefully we can have you out of here tomorrow," Ellie replied. "I know it's tough to have to stay in the hospital but you were put through a lot today and you need time to recover."

Sarah nodded. "You're right, Dr. Bartowski."

"Oh, sure," Jimmy groused with a sideways glance at Sarah. "You're nice and calm when the Doc tells you that but I say it and you try to smash me with a vase like it's a damn prop."

"Yeah, I need to get some sleep," Ellie said tiredly. "Just wanted to check to see how you were doing."

"Thank you for your help today," Sarah said warmly, which put a smile on Ellie's face despite her mood.

Los Angeles, CA
October 14, 2015
10:00 AM PDT

CALTRANS relayed Flemming's L.A. address to the team. An NSA observation team parked itself outside of Flemming's house but did not see him come home.

"You know what to do, Chuck?" Carina asked.

"I know, let you know if I flash on any bad guys," he replied tiredly, the two large cups of coffee he drank earlier having no effect on him.

"Otherwise…" Casey said in a command-like fashion.

"…stay in the car," Chuck finished.

Casey and Carina exited the vehicle and walked towards the house. Casey covered Carina as she tried to pick the lock on Flemming's house. Chuck watched with a minimal amount of interest until he caught the face of someone in the driver's side mirror of the car. It was Flemming.

Chuck bounded out of the car. "Professor Flemming! Hey!" Flemming dropped the groceries he was carrying and ran for his life. "No no no no, wait Professor! It's me, Chuck!"

Flemming kept running. "Professor, we're here to extract you!" Chuck shouted, which didn't slow Flemming down. "Glass castle! Glass castle!"

That got Flemming's attention. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean…I didn't mean to scare you. It's me, Chuck. I was in your Psychology and Symbolism class at Stanford. I don't know if you remember me, but…"

"Chuck Bartowski?" Flemming said. "Of course I remember you."

Chuck laughed nervously. "Yeah, I guess it's not every day you kick a guy out of school, huh. At least I hope not."

"So you're with the Agency now? Why didn't you say so?"

"I…don't think I'm supposed to, really."

"Well, we have code phrases. Didn't they train you?"

"I…haven't been doing this long. Usually I just stay in the car."

"Next time, if it's a dangerous situation, say "Are you coming to the toga party?"."

"Wow, I like that. A real code phrase. That's awesome."

"So what are we doing now?"

"Well, uh, Carina and Casey will take care of you, but I was wondering if I could ask you something first. Why did the CIA have a file on me at Stanford?"

Flemming looked down at the ground. He wanted to tell Chuck but couldn't. "I'm sorry, I…"

Flemming went silent and fell forward into Chuck's arms. "Oh, hey…hey buddy," Chuck said to comfort him. "Let's not beat ourselves up, you know?"

Then Chuck felt the arrow sticking out of Flemming's back. "Oh boy! OK, OK, hang in there!"

Flemming fell forward to the ground on top of Chuck. "Give this to Bryce Larkin!" he screamed weakly, waving a piece of paper in his hand.

Chuck took the piece of paper and tried to make sense of the numbers and letters Flemming wrote on it. "Bryce? What does Bryce have to do with this?"

Chuck never got a chance to find out as an arrow went straight through the piece of paper. Magnus walked up to the prone Chuck and reloaded his crossbow. He picked up the other arrow and the piece of paper attached to it. He aimed his crossbow at Chuck's eyes.

Magnus then ran from the scene as Casey and Carina tried to shoot him. "Man down! Man down!" Chuck shouted. "Man down! Help me! Help!"

West Side Medical Center – Los Angeles, CA
October 14, 2015
2:30 PM PDT

Ellie sat back in her chair. Although she felt a little bit better than she did last night, the last thing she wanted was to talk to the police about what happened to Mason Whitney. It wasn't the first time she had to discuss a patient with the police, but that didn't mean she enjoyed it.

"OK, Doctor," the officer said. "I just need to take a picture to upload to the database and have you sign your statement."

The officer looked at Ellie. "Wait a second." He walked up to Ellie's side. "If you don't mind?" He brushed some of Ellie's hair back. "Just have to get a good shot for the facial recognition software." He didn't tell her about the tracking device he slipped behind her ear.

He took the picture and then took out a pen. "And if you could just sign your statement?"

Ellie took the pen he proffered and clicked it open. She signed the statement, completely unaware the pen was giving her a dosage of truth serum.

"Thank you for your time, Dr. Bartowski," the police officer said, taking the pen and document and leaving Ellie's office.

Riordan Payne went through a lot of effort to get close to Dr. Bartowski. He hoped she would lead him to the locket before the truth serum killed her.

Hotel Amarano - Burbank, CA
October 14, 2015
2:00 PM PDT

"You don't remember anything else, Chuck?"

"It was a stressful situation," Chuck said in exasperation to Carina. "I saw a guy get skewered with a crossbow."

"You can't remember a single number on that piece of paper?" Casey asked.

"I don't know. I mean, why would he want me to bring those numbers to Bryce?"

"Flemming was probably never told about Bryce's death," Carina replied.

Chuck exhaled in frustration. "I know there were ten numbers. A couple of nines, a five, it definitely started with a two…"

"You have a computer in your brain and you can't recall ten numbers?" Casey said with ample derision.

"I…don't know! OK?" Chuck buried his face in his hands. Casey's lack of concern for what happened to him was really starting to grate on his nerves. He slowly raised his head. "Look, Flemming knew something. Right before, he said 'I'm sorry'. Why would he say that?"

"I don't know," Carina replied.

Chuck let his head drop back into his hands. What was the connection between Bryce and those numbers? Suddenly it hit him like a thunderbolt. He remembered the assassination games he always played with Bryce…and how Bryce somehow always outsmarted him.

"I have it," Chuck said. "Those numbers are for a book in the Stanford Library. Bryce had a place where he would stash stuff. I bet he told Flemming about it. The professor must have the intel there for Bryce to find."

"But then it's only a matter of time before Magnus figures it out and beats us to the book," Casey said.

"Bingo."

"Unless we beat him to it."

Chuck felt the energy coming back to him. "Bryce kept his stuff on the third floor. There was a turn…"

Chuck forgot the pathway Bryce took to get to his stash. He sighed. "I'd have to be there to remember it. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I have to go back to Stanford."

"Cool," Casey replied with a tiny smile, which was probably his equivalent of an ear-to-ear grin.