A/N: You! Hey you! We know you own Chuck, just cop to it.
Thanks to all of you who have reviewed and followed along on this trip. It's so much fun to write it, I'm glad you are enjoying reading it.
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The prior night
Yuri walked quickly to the black Cadillac Escalade with the tinted windows and took the driver's seat. Malena was already in the passenger seat, waiting for him.
"Good?" she asked. He started the car and drove away from the hotel. He drove decisively, but without overt haste.
"No problem," he responded. They were speaking in Russian. Although both were fluent in English, Yuri was more comfortable in his native language and Malena was equally comfortable in both languages. She spoke with him in Russian as a courtesy.
"Chuck?" she asked.
"I did as you directed. I cut him loose and left him there. He's smart enough to get out of the room quickly," said Yuri. After a pause he continued, "I'm glad you let him live."
"Would you have killed him if I had told you to?" she asked.
"Of course, but it would have been a mistake. I wouldn't have been pleased with your decision."
"Why?" she asked.
"Because he is an innocent. He is no threat to you...to us. It would have been wanton cruelty serving no rational business purpose. He was right. We aren't psychopaths."
Given his size, many people assumed Yuri was merely Malena's bodyguard, but, in fact, he was an intelligent, trusted, and reliable lieutenant. "So says Yuri the Gobbler?" she asked with a laugh.
He chuckled and replied, "Yes...So, what do we do now, Malena?"
"Well, let's take stock of the good news before we focus on the bad news. The biggest piece of good news is that Harris is dead. That son of a bitch has been dogging us for almost two years. He was a dangerous opponent. And, he had set a clever trap."
"Very clever. We almost fell into it, actually," said Yuri.
"Yes. Using the plutonium as bait was very smart. If he had merely waited until the bidding for the Water Lilies painting, he would have identified me. That would have been a disaster. But he became impatient. He saw you and jumped to the conclusion that a man, it had to be a man of course, you were talking to must have been La Ciudad," said Malena.
"I'm glad he's dead, but the truth is, Malena, we got very lucky. If he hadn't taken Chuck and if you hadn't placed the transmitter on Chuck, we would never have known that the painting was a trap. We would never have found Harris and killed him. His impatience did him in, but we did not cover ourselves in glory here. So, let's focus on the bad news now. No plutonium. The buyers will be disappointed."
"Yes, but they knew we didn't have possession. Intercepted merchandise is a common difficulty in this business. They will not be charged for what we cannot deliver. We still have the missiles and that was the bulk of the order anyway. Their ship is docking tomorrow and the missiles arrive in the afternoon. We can put plutonium on back order, as the retailers say. When we get a lead on some, they will be the first buyer we approach," said Malena.
"Alright, but Harris still bothers me."
"I agree. We don't know what he knew or what else he had planned for us. The fact that he's dead doesn't remove his threat," said Malena. "What if he knew about the missiles? What if he told the Americans? If that transfer is compromised, we could be in serious jeopardy. It's all planned out already, but who knows how safe any of our plans are. Now that we know Harris was so close, any of our existing arrangements for the transfer of the missiles might have been exposed to the Americans. There's only one thing to do."
"What?"
"Make new plans. Get a different crew to help us with the transfer. A new crew. One that Harris could not have compromised or even known about," said Malena.
"Will we have time? The transfer is tomorrow," asked Yuri.
"We will have to scramble, but we ought to be able to find the right men in Los Angeles in time. How hard can it be to find such people here? A few phone calls to..."
"Chuck's brother," said Yuri.
"What?" asked Malena.
"Chuck was so grateful, he gave me his watch to thank me for saving his life."
"Let me see," Malena said. He held out his arm and she examined the watch. "Very nice watch."
"Yes." said Yuri. "Said his brother had stolen a crate of them, so his brother operates outside the law. How many criminals do you know that work totally alone? He'll certainly know one of the local mobs. So long as it's not the Cremini mob, it will be new to us and untouched by Harris and whoever Harris might have told about us. Hopefully Chuck's brother can introduce us to a mob who can get the truck into the Port without inspections. Maybe we will even be lucky again and he will have Port connections of his own."
"The money will be good enough to entice him," said Malena.
"Yes... But do you think we can find Chuck?"
Malena took out her phone and started a search. "Sure. He told Harris he lived in Burbank. So, ...Bartowski's in Burbank...yes, right here. Someplace called Echo Park."
"Good. Head there now?" asked Yuri.
"No. Let him sleep. He had a rough night. We'll go first thing in the morning."
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The next morning
"Hi, Chuck," Malena said with a pretty smile.
"Hi, Malena...Hi, Yuri," he said to Yuri, standing behind Malena. "I'd like you to meet my sister, Ellie. Ellie, this is Malena and Yuri. They were with me last night at the party when I fell down the stairs."
"Pleased to meet you, Ellie" said Malena, shaking Ellie's hand. Inside his head, Chuck was screaming, 'Please don't say anything about Sarah. Please, don't.'
"It's a pleasure," said Yuri gravely, also shaking Ellie's hand.
"We wanted to make sure Chuck was ok this morning," said Malena.
"So nice to meet you both. And that's so sweet of you to check on him," she said with a sincere smile, putting a gentle hand on Malena's arm. "I think he will have a couple of black eyes, but there was no concussion or fractures, so he got lucky."
From behind them came a booming voice, "Come on Ellie, we have to go. We're late already...oh, hello, I didn't know we had company," said Awesome, coming towards the door from the bedrooms also wearing his scrubs.
"Devon, this is Malena and Yuri. New friends of mine," said Chuck.
"Hi...any friend of Chuck's is a friend of mine. Great to meet you both." He shook their hands and said to Yuri, "Wow, dude...you're jacked." Awesome grabbed Yuri's upper arm and squeezed. "Awesome..." he said with a huge toothy grin. "Lift much? How much can you bench?"
"One hundred and eighty kilos," said Yuri with obvious pride.
"Yo, dude, that's huge. I'm nowhere near that yet. But I'm working my way up. Good for you. You ever play football? American football?"
"No. It's not a sport in Russia," said Yuri.
Ellie said, "Ok, boys. Gotta break this up. Devon and I have to go to work. Malena, Yuri, please come in. There's a fresh pot of coffee. It was so nice meeting you both."
"Yeah," said Awesome. "Have a good one." Taking Ellie's arm, they left across the courtyard. Chuck breathed a sigh of relief that Sarah's name had not come up.
"Good morning, Chuck..." said Malena.
Chuck held up a hand to stop her and, pointing to Ellie and Awesome, said, "Like your dentist." It was not a question and his voice lacked his usual easygoing manner.
Malena looked at the retreating pair and said, nodding, "Like my dentist."
Chuck smiled at that and said, "Well, then, come on in. As Ellie said, I have coffee made." He looked over to Casey's apartment and saw the curtains move a little. Casey was watching. Chuck stopped in mid step and said, "Unless you changed your mind about killing me. If you came to kill me, I don't think I want to give you coffee first... or even second, now that I think about it."
"No, Chuck. We didn't come to kill you. Not at all," Malena said with a light chuckle.
They walked into the apartment and Chuck said, while heading into the kitchen and taking some coffee cups out of the cabinet. "How did you find me? I didn't tell you where I live."
"You told the other guys you lived in Burbank. Not too many Bartowski's in Burbank. Actually, though, the reason we are here is that you also told Yuri last night that your brother does business outside the law. We wanted to ask you to introduce us to him. We might want to do some business with him."
"With my brother? Ummm, please don't take this the wrong way, but if I introduce you to him and you do business with him, will you kill him afterwards? Cause I kind of like my brother. I mean, he's a jerk sometimes, but more often than not he's ok. I wouldn't want you to have to kill him."
"No, Chuck," she lied. "Not to worry, it's not that kind of business. I just have to move some merchandise around. That's all. I thought he might know some people who could help."
"Oh, ok. Then here we go. He lives right over there," Chuck pointed across the courtyard. He, Malena and Yuri left his apartment and started across the courtyard.
"You live with your sister and next door to your brother?" asked Yuri.
"Yes. We are a close family."
"You are very lucky, Chuck" said Yuri. "Family is the most important thing."
"Yes, Yuri, it is," said Chuck.
"Here we go." Chuck knocked on Casey's door. When Casey opened it, Chuck noticed that his right hand was hidden behind the door. Chuck was pretty sure that if he noticed it, Malena and Yuri had noticed it too.
Before Casey could speak, Chuck said, "Malena, Yuri, please meet my brother Casey Bartowski. Casey, these are some new friends of mine, Malena and Yuri. A couple of assholes jumped me last night thinking I was somebody else. I got punched in the face a lot," Chuck gestured to his battered face. "Malena and Yuri saved me from them. They are ok in my book...Oh, I told Ellie and Awesome that I fell down the stairs, so don't tell them any different, ok?."
Casey stepped back from the door and they saw the SIG Sauer P229 in his hand, which he put on safe and put down on the table next to his door.
Casey, looking at La Ciudad and her enormous lieutenant said, "How ya doing?" as he shook hands with them. Then he pretended to look at Chuck's face for the first time. "You know where the assholes that did this are? I want to talk to them."
Malena said, "Morgue."
That seemed to stop Casey. He nodded seriously and said to Malena, "No half measures. I'm impressed, Malena."
"And you took the news in stride. I'm impressed too, Casey."
"I respect competence."
Chuck said, "Casey, Malena wants to talk a little business with you. Let's go back to my place and do that inside. It's my turn to make breakfast."
"Lead the way," said Casey.
Once in Chuck's apartment, and seated at the dining table, Casey said, "Business?"
Chuck said, "Casey, I might have sort of...well, mentioned...sort of in passing...that you have some experience with stolen goods...I mean...you know, sometimes."
"Chuck..." said Casey with a warning in his tone and anger on his face.
"In this case, Casey, it may have been a good thing," said Malena. Chuck had put full coffee mugs in front of each of them and put milk and sugar out on the table. In the kitchen he began to make a second pot of coffee. Once it was started, he took out the ingredients needed to make a spinach and mushroom frittata.
"I don't know if you can help me, but even if you can't you may have friends who can," said Malena.
"I do. What do you need? Even if I don't have people directly, my friends have friends," said Casey.
"We need connections at the Port of Los Angeles. We have some merchandise to move out and onto a freighter docking late this afternoon. Our merchandise cannot be subject to inspection or delay," said Malena. Casey thought Chuck had been absolutely right in his description. She carried herself like a successful, intelligent business woman. Formidable.
Chuckling, Casey said, "Well, you are in luck. I have somebody at the Port. The thing is, I've only used her to move things in to the Port. Moving things out will be new for me, but, in theory, should be easier. Only thing is, I won't get involved in human trafficking. That business sucks and I want nothing to do with it. If that's your thing, I'm not the guy to help out." Casey knew that La Ciudad was an arms dealer, so there was very little risk in his taking this position. He didn't want to seem too amenable to whatever she had in mind. She would expect some caution. Inside, he was very curious. What would La Ciudad be moving out of the Port of Los Angeles?
Yuri made a face and Malena said, "No, Casey, I don't touch that shit either. Ugly business. It's weapons. A week or so ago, I had some of my men rob a National Guard armory in Salt Lake City. Are you familiar with MANPADS?"
"Of course. Man Portable Air Defense Systems. Shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles. We gave hundreds to the Muj while they were fighting the Soviets."
"Right. My men stole fifteen of the newest FIM-92 Stingers from Salt Lake City. They are on their way to Los Angeles by truck and should arrive this afternoon. I need them transferred to a ship tonight."
Holy shit, thought Casey. If the bad guys in Afghanistan or Iraq got ahold of these, they could make life very bad for American fliers. Not to mention that Al Queda could use them to target passenger planes. This was a total disaster. These missiles had to be retrieved.
Chuck remembered Sarah mentioning that robbery the other morning at breakfast. From the kitchen, he called out, "Spinach and mushroom frittata. That ok for everybody? Everybody eat mushrooms?"
"Sounds delicious, Chuck," said Malena, smiling sweetly. "I didn't know you could cook too."
"I'm just learning, but I'm pretty good with eggs. So long as it's not too complicated."
Yuri said, "Here, let me help you. I can help chop the vegetables. I'm good with a knife." Yuri brought his coffee with him to the kitchen and began to work with Chuck to make breakfast. He was still wearing the watch Chuck had given him the prior night.
"Don't know why that wouldn't be possible, Malena. But I have one really important question," said Casey.
"One hundred thousand dollars," said Malena.
"Two hundred," said Casey.
"One fifty," said Malena.
"Done," said Casey, shaking hands with Malena. "Hey Chuck, you just made fifty grand."
"I...I ..I did? I mean ..great...thanks," said Chuck. He brought toast and orange juice to the table.
"Where's the ship now?" asked Casey.
"A few hours north of Catalina Island. They are timing their arrival for dusk. That way the Port authorities won't pay too much attention to them until morning."
Chuck brought out a cast iron skillet with a frittata and put it on a trivet in the center of the table. Cutting the food into four slices, he distributed them onto plates. Yuri took his seat and took a sip of his coffee.
Malena said, "Chuck, this is delicious. Great job."
Casey said, "Not bad, kid. Did you get that hot sauce I asked you to pick up?"
"Uhh, sorry, Casey, I forgot,"
"S'ok. I'll be right back..do either of you like hot sauce?" Her mouth full of egg, Malena nodded 'yes' and Yuri waggled his hand to say 'so-so.' "Well, then, this one is for you, Malena. It's pretty strong. Hang on." Casey left the apartment and was back in a minute or so with a bottle in his hand. He gave Chuck a tiny nod. While he was gone, he had spoken to Sarah and filled her in.
"Malena, try this, but not too much."
Yuri said, "I'll try some, too, Casey." Malena loved it and Yuri, to the gentle amusement of the others, struggled with the intense heat. Grumbling that the hot sauce overwhelmed the subtle spices that he had used on the frittata, Chuck got up to get Yuri some water. When the meal was over, Chuck and Yuri cleared the table and put the dishes into the dishwasher.
"Ok," said Casey. "If this has to work tonight, I want to call my contact at the Port right away. She's not going to have a lot of time."
"Please, do it in front of us, Casey. On speaker phone," said Malena.
"Trust issues?" he laughed. "Sure. I don't blame you."
He took out his phone, put it on speaker and dialed a number. Sarah picked up and said, "Hello."
"Hello, Sarah. This is Casey Bartowski. You have a burner available?"
"Of course," she said.
"Call me back on this number." He disconnected the call.
It only took a moment for her to call. "Ok, Sarah. I've got you on speaker because I'm here with some friends of mine, Malena and Yuri. We have a little business proposition for you."
"Casey, I don't like dealing with strangers. You know that. Why are you doing this?"
"Sarah, these friends saved my brother's life last night. You remember my brother, right? They are good people..." he chuckled, "well...maybe not good people, but our kind of people. I vouch for them. Here's what we need. You get fifty grand to move a truck load of stuff through the Port tonight without inspections and up to a ship."
"Out of the Port? Not in? This is new for you, Casey. But, fifty grand? That's decent. ...Ok. I can do that. What are the details?"
Malena spoke, "The ship is the Mumara. It will approach the Port late afternoon and, hopefully, dock around dusk. The authorities from the Port will handle most of the paperwork in the morning, if the normal procedures apply. The truck can be outside the gates of the Port any time after 5pm today. We want to get the truck's contents on board the Mumara sometime before first light. A lot of the details will be dependent on what the Port authorities do."
"Is the Mumara a container ship or an old freighter?"
"Freighter."
A light laugh came through the phone, "Ok. The authorities will not be an issue, Marlena..."
"Malena...no "r"."
"Oh, sorry,... Malena. Not an issue. I'm the assistant to one of the Port managers. I can put the ship in a nice quiet spot. Some place out of the way so no one will notice a late night transfer. Once I pick a spot for the ship, I'll let you know where to have the truck meet me."
"Meet you?" asked Malena.
"Of course. The best way to get it through without inspection is for me to be on the truck. I'm going to have to get a few people to cooperate to wave us through. Nothing major, but this doesn't happen otherwise. No confusion with my friends if I'm on the truck. Nobody picks the wrong truck. And if, God forbid, something goes wrong, you will sure as shit want me on that truck."
"Ok," said Malena. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me, pay me. Casey, you have this number the rest of the day?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Ok. I'll call you later. Bye."
"Bye."
"Good," said Malena. "Now we wait."
Chuck and Casey called in sick to the Buy More and they all settled down to wait for Sarah to call with the details of tonight. Yuri and Chuck sat down on the couch to play Call of Duty and Malena and Casey sat at the dining table and discussed weapons. While Chuck was not actively listening to the conversation behind him, he did hear Malena refer to Yuri with a chuckle as "Yuri the Gobbler".
"Why do they call you Yuri the Gobbler?" Chuck asked while moving his avatar around a building to avoid an ambush.
"Because I have the reputation of eating the people I kill," said Yuri.
Chuck stopped what he was doing and stared at Yuri.
After a while Yuri noticed that Chuck had stopped and turned his head to look at him. He said, "Well, of course I don't actually eat people. That would be gross. I let the reputation stand because it makes me sound scarier."
"Dude," said Chuck, "You are over six and a half feet tall, weight something like 400 pounds, and could break me in half with just a fierce look. You are plenty freakin' scary without a reputation as a cannibal."
Yuri looked at Chuck seriously for several moments and said, "Thank you, Chuck."
Chuck and Yuri went out on a beer run and Casey ordered in pizza for lunch.
Soon after they had eaten the pizza, Sarah called. The Mumara had been assigned a berth along the main channel across from the San Pedro Fish Market. She indicated that she wanted a more secluded spot, but container ships were so prevalent that there weren't tons of berths available to choose among for freighters. She also selected a spot to meet the truck in Long Beach. It was agreed that Sarah would meet the truck alone and the four of them would meet her at the dock itself. She thought it was less conspicuous for the truck to go through the checks alone rather than being followed by a car.
Soon after the business was concluded and before Chuck and Yuri had sat back on the couch to continue Call of Duty, Malena took Chuck by the hand and walked him back into his bedroom. Closing the door, and without a word being spoken, she took him in her arms and kissed him with smoldering hunger, pressing her whole body against his. Almost immediately, she realized he wasn't reciprocating much at all.
"What's the matter, Chuck?"
"I'm sorry...I'm nervous..."
"But I thought this is why you went to the party last night. This is exactly what you had in mind...were hoping for...I'm ready, Chuck. I have been all day." She laid a light hand on his arm. "There's nothing to be nervous about...just relax and do what comes naturally."
"Malena, I really, really want to...when I said nervous I didn't mean you..."
"Oh, the guys, the guys on the other side of the door. No worries, I'll send them out for a walk...or send them to Casey's or something."
"No, that's not it either. It's tonight. Transferring the missiles to the ship...I'm a little freaked out about it. I've never done anything this ...important...that's always been Casey's thing...and I'm excited about it, but nervous about it too...really nervous...and..with you...here...I'm afraid I'll be too distracted to ….well...to do a good job...and I really, really want to do a good job..I really like you and ...I'm nervous...I think I will be until after the transfer...can I...can we...get a raincheck until tonight?...until after we do the thing with the missiles?"
"Oh, that's sweet, Chuck," she said.
"You're not mad?"
"No. Disappointed, but not mad. I tell you what though, and you can count on this, when we get finished at the dock tonight, that won't be the last missile I handle today." He laughed nervously. She smiled and gave him a lingering kiss.
Holding his hand, they walked out of his room together. Neither noticed Casey hold out his hand, palm up, to Yuri nor Yuri slap two twenties down with a sour expression.
They spent the afternoon much like the morning, except Malena spoke to both the ship and her men on the truck and relayed Sarah's information and instructions.
It was late afternoon when they left Echo Park and drove to Long Beach. Traffic was, as usual, atrocious and they didn't arrive until early evening. Finding a quiet bar and grill near Point Fermin Park, they settled down to wait. Casey drank beer, Chuck drank ginger ale, Malena had wine and Yuri drank vodka like it was water (and showed absolutely no effects). They took their time over burgers and lingered afterwards.
Malena looked at her watch. It was time to go to the dock.
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A/N2: Matthew Willig, the actor who played Yuri, played American football in the National Football League for 14 seasons. So, Devon was on the right track.
A/N3: Casey can thank Marc Vun Kannon for the $40. The bet was Marc's idea.
A/N4: I have a serious question for you guys. I have only a couple more chapters in this arc, and the last chapter will be a short one. I need guidance as to where to go from here. I was having a conversation about this with Zettel the other day. Without much advance planning by me (ok, no planning at all), this is turning into a serial type project. Each arc has a beginning, a middle and an end, but the whole story just goes on and on. Do you readers prefer that, or would you prefer that I break it up going forward into separate stories around each arc (an arc being, for the foreseeable future, roughly an episode or so). I'm a bit torn and could use some advice.
On the one hand, people know where to find this story and are familiar with this particular A/U. Also, the characters are not static and will be changing as the story progresses (particularly Chuck and Sarah), so it will make more sense read in order. Keeping it all together maintains that continuity.
On the other hand, I worry that if this grows too long, it will discourage new readers from trying it. They might not be ready to try a War-and-Peace sized fan fic when they can read a nice little one shot on the train to work. I've been putting a table of contents (of a sort) on my profile, but someone new to the site may not follow along too well.
Anyway, what do you guys think? Keep it all here together, or start breaking it into separate stories? I'd particularly love to hear from you shy folks out there who don't review often. Maybe from some of the new visitors to the site. If reviews aren't your thing, you can go right ahead and PM me. Thanks. You guys are the best.