A/N: You know it's not really necessary to mention ownership of Chuck before every chapter, right? But, what the hell, I haven't been sued yet, so why mess with a good thing?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was a bright, sunny day and the sky was so blue it was almost sparkling. The temperature hovered around the freezing point. Yuri was driving his SUV across the beautiful Margaret Bridge from Buda to the Pest side, with Chuck in the passenger seat next to him. Sitting behind them were Casey, Brown and Sarah. Chuck was admiring the 120 year old stone bridge as they passed over it heading east, and observing on his left the bulk of Margaret Island in the middle of the Danube, covered in a light coating of snow and shining brightly in the sunlight. Now that the ad hoc Selenica mission was behind them, he was really enjoying the sights and feel of this ancient European city, so different from what he was used to at home.
Chuck and Yuri had spent several hours the prior night in the safe house apartment going over the intel acquired from Selenica's garage. Chuck to organize and analyze it (and to access the hard drives) and Yuri as translator. That morning they were on their way to the Embassy to report to Graham the results of the operation against Selenica and his men and what they had pieced together and surmised about Selenica's plans.
Just as they were arriving at Liberty Square, across from the Embassy, Brown received a text. "Oh, shit," he said. "They found Evans...well, they found his body. They found him in the Danube. There's an emergency meeting of all of us in fifteen minutes. Crap."
"It's ok, Tim. You go to that meeting. You were tremendous help with the Selenica thing, but that's over now. You go hear what the new... acting, I guess...COS has to say. It will probably be pretty important for your next few weeks," said Sarah, as she got out of the car.
"You sure?" he sounded hesitant.
"Yeah, kid. Go. You did good with us. Thanks for your help," said Casey. He handed Brown a business card. "This gets you to one of my burners. Call me if you want to talk." He patted Brown on the arm.
"Thanks, Casey. I was happy to help. We did good. Those guys were going to kill a lot of people. We did good," he said.
"Yeah, kid. We did good," said Casey, giving him another reassuring pat on the arm. By this point they were all standing on the edge of the park near Yuri's car.
"Bye, guys. Bye, Yuri," said Brown. He still did not know Yuri's last name.
"Goodbye, Agent Brown. Take good care of yourself," said Yuri, shaking the man's hand.
"Thank you. You too." He turned to the group. "I'll make sure you can pass through to get in without security checks," he assured them as he turned to go.
"Thanks," said Chuck, "but we can follow you now. We'll be going inside too."
"No. I'm saying goodbye here," said Yuri.
"Oh. Alright," said Brown. "Then I'll split. Bye." He waved and ran off across the park, eager to get to the meeting with his Budapest team.
"Yuri, why don't you come in? Just one time won't blow your cover with Volkoff," said Chuck.
"I know," said Yuri.
"Then what is it?" Chuck asked.
"You're going to be talking to the boss," said Yuri, looking uncomfortable.
"Yeah. He's going to be pretty happy with you. I'm sure he'll want to thank you himself," said Chuck.
"That's alright, Chuck. I don't like talking to authority. Never have. I'll leave now. Let you guys talk to the men in power," said Yuri. "Better you than me."
"Alright, Yuri. I certainly don't want to force you to hear all the praise that will be thrown your way," said Chuck, with a smile. "You might blush."
"Goodbye, my friend," said Yuri, giving Chuck a big hug.
"Goodbye, Yuri. Please be safe. You are in a dangerous line of work," said Chuck.
"You too." He turned to Casey and wrapped him in a hug. "Beregi sebya, brat." [Take care, brother.]
Casey responded, "Vy tozhe, starik." [You too, old man.]
Yuri released Casey and stuck out his hand to Sarah, politely. She raised an eyebrow and smiled, holding her arms wide for a hug. Chuckling, he gave her a hug and she kissed him on the cheek. He said, with a jerk of his head at Chuck, "Take care of this one."
"Count on it, Yuri."
Yuri left them and walked back to his SUV at the curb and to head back to his own world, lighting a cigarette as he went.
Chuck, Casey and Sarah walked across the park and into the American Embassy. True to his word, Brown had left instructions at the gate that they were to be admitted to the building bypassing the normal security protocols.
It didn't take them too long at all to find themselves back in the conference room in the CIA section of the building and initiating a conference call with Graham. The Budapest CIA team, including Brown, was also assembled in a nearby conference room, getting a briefing on the death their former boss.
Graham greeted them. "Good morning, team. I seem to be talking to Budapest a lot today," he said, with a sad shake of his head.
"Yes, Sir. We heard about Evans. Anything we can do to help?" asked Sarah.
"No. Thank you, Agent Walker. It's going to be a police matter, if it's anything. I may ask the FBI to get involved. I don't know yet. The Budapest coroner has Evans' body right now. It's early yet. We don't even know what killed him at this point. Why don't you give me the report on the Selenica business?"
Chuck took the lead again. "Sir, Agent Walker approached Selenica yesterday afternoon and conned him into assembling his men. He decided that he had to relocate the pending operation out of Budapest. In addition, she arranged for him to take a cell phone from her, one that I had previously doctored. We followed him to the meeting with his men at a garage on the northern edge of the Buda side of the city. They had been holding four Serb men as prisoners and, as part of their intended relocation south, they were about to kill their prisoners. We intervened to stop the murders. In the ensuing violence, Selenica and his men were killed. There were no good guys hurt."
"Do we think this will disrupt the bombing?" asked Graham.
"Yes, Sir. These were all the men involved. Selenica had said so himself."
"Ok. Good. Any chance the action can come back to us?" asked Graham.
"I doubt it, Sir. The only surviving witnesses were the prisoners we freed and we didn't remove their hoods until they had been tranquilized. Our team all wore gloves and there were no cameras around. I think we are probably in the clear."
"Excellent," said Graham. "Do we know what the target was?"
"We found maps and photos of the target. It was a nondescript white building in Pristina," Chuck said, mentioning the capital of Kosovo.
"I thought that the target was in Serbia," said Graham.
"Well, for the time being, at least, Pristina is still Serbia," said Chuck. "It took a while, but Gobrienko and I finally identified it as the building housing the Kosovo Assembly. We believe that Kosovo is about to declare its independence from Serbia. Putting all of the information we found together, it seems that Selenica's intent was to blow up the Assembly with the delegates inside immediately after the vote was recorded, killing all of them."
"Dammit," said Graham. "And the Serb prisoners were to be found there dead to make it a false flag operation, right? Everyone would think that the Serbs had over-reacted and bombed the Assembly in response to the independence vote. The West would come down on the Serbs with both feet..."
"Yes, sir. Their plan...their hope I guess, was that Albanians everywhere would be so angry at the Serb's actions that they would ignite against their governments and unite to form Greater Albania."
"Idiots," said Graham. "It wouldn't have worked, but they were blinded by their own fanaticism. Just lucky you stumbled upon it. Speaking of which, where's Gobrienko? I wanted to thank him."
"He's heading back to Moscow. I think he'd be embarrassed to be thanked by the brass," said Casey in his deep growl.
With a chuckle, Graham said, "Yeah. I've known guys like that. Well, when you talk to him again, tell him an extra $200,000 will go into his Swiss account as a thanks. That's a decent pat on the back for a couple of day's work."
"He expressed to Chuck last night a certain satisfaction at the job we did, but the money will be appreciated no doubt. I'm sure he'll be pleased, Sir," said Sarah.
"So, team, you did very well in Budapest. A simple transaction with Gobrienko turned into a quickly assembled mission to stop a bombing. As usual, you handled this mission with admirable speed, skill and efficiency. Once again, your team has excelled. Good job."
"Thank you, Sir," said Sarah. "If I may, we'd like to convey a very positive review of Agent Timothy Brown, the rookie you assigned to help us. He did a very fine job, culminating in his performance last night against Selenica's men. He batted back a live grenade, saving my life and his own. The grenade detonated amongst the terrorists and killed six men."
"I wouldn't want to play tennis against him, Sir," said Chuck.
"Apparently not," said Graham, blowing out a long sigh.
"Sir, that was his Red Test," said Sarah.
"Ah, ok..." said Graham, with a bit of a concerned scowl. "How is he?"
"He's alright, Sir. Casey and I sat with him last night for a few hours, while Chuck and Yuri were sifting through the raw intelligence on Selenica's plans. He's alright, I guess. It was a pretty gruesome sight. The grenade detonated among the men at chest height apparently. Bit of a mess. And for his first time..."
"I understand. I'll have the new Chief of Station keep an eye on him. We have a counselor in Berlin. I think that's the closest. If he needs it."
"I think that's a fine idea, sir."
"So, before you come back stateside, I have another job for you. I want you to head over to Switzerland and keep an eye on the Federov wedding that Gobrienko told you about. A big collection of these guys is going to be at one place and one time. Just go and see what you see. Today is Wednesday and the wedding is Sunday. You should be able to drive there by Friday and have a good look around before Federov and his bride tie the knot."
"Ok, Sir," said Sarah.
"I've alerted the Swiss DAP that you will be there to observe. Sounds like there will be more spies watching than there will be guests at the wedding. The wedding is to take place in the Royal Grande Hotel in Interlaken. We've booked you in to the hotel under the usual covers. Take one of the Budapest station's cars."
"Very well, Sir," said Sarah.
"Good luck, team," said Graham.
"Thank you, Sir. Goodbye," said Sarah.
"One moment. Chuck," he said, "I'd like to speak with you alone for a minute, if you could."
"Certainly, Sir," said Chuck. With his eyes he asked Sarah if she had any idea why he was being singled out. She shook her head and shrugged.
"We'll be right outside, Chuck," she said.
"Right. See you in a minute, I guess." Sarah and Casey left the room and closed the door behind them. He turned to Graham with no small amount of trepidation. "Did I do something wrong, Sir?"
Graham gave a quick bark of laughter. "No, Chuck. Quite the opposite, in fact. Trust me, you aren't in trouble. Chuck, this spy business came at you out of the blue. No training. No warning. A surprise email from Larkin and next thing you know Agents Walker and Casey are fixtures in your life. Suddenly you have all the government's secrets in your head and you're defusing bombs in Union Station. Ever since that first day you have just been more and more impressive, son.
"I saw the tape of your interrogation by the MI-6 agents and subsequent discussion with that La Ciudad woman. Chuck, that was unbelievable. You did better than all but a handful of my veteran agents could have done. I showed that tape to some people around here. People I have worked with for years and whose judgement I respect a great deal. When I explained to them afterward that you didn't have a single day of training, that you were a civilian...they were dumbfounded. Speechless.
"I listened to the tape of you turning Yari Demetrios while at gunpoint in New Jersey. Exceptional work, Chuck. Exceptional. You heard what Barry Longshore said, that you deserve the reputation you have. And Barry's a pretty tough nut. Impressing him is a big deal.
"This Selenica business. Gobrienko is your asset and you handled him perfectly, without any training in doing so. You cracked a phone that our experts told us could not be cracked...By the way, don't forget that you have to stop in DC on your way home...Yet, you signed up for none of this, son. How are you doing? How are you handling it all?"
"I'm fine, Sir. Better than fine, actually. I told Sarah and Case. There are aspects of this spy stuff that I really hate. I don't like the violence. I don't like the lying. I mean, I see the need for it, but don't like it. But overall, I'm really happy with what I'm doing. For the five years after the trouble at Stanford, I did nothing. I just wasted my time. Now, I feel like I'm doing something ...something good. I'm helping people. We just stopped a bomber, for God's sake. He was going to kill four people last night and a building full next month. We saved lives and I helped. I'd have preferred if we didn't have to kill all the bad guys, but ...well, I understand it. And working with Casey and Sarah is.. frankly, Sir, it's the best thing to ever happen to me. You know that Sarah and I have a personal relationship outside of work, and that's ...well, I can't even put into words how wonderful that is, Sir, but I am talking here about the work part of this. Sarah and Casey are brilliant and knowledgeable and just so damn impressive. I'm certain that the only reason that I can do any of this...at any level... is because of them."
Graham said, "Agents Walker and Casey are two of the best we have. No question about that. But, Chuck, to say you yourself are exceeding our expectations is a gross understatement. Every time we turn around this team does something totally extraordinary and we have you to thank..."
"Sir, I …"
"I know. You are going to say something self-deprecating and complimentary to your partners. Take it as a given, ok? Let me finish. The Intersect has been a promising experiment, but it is still an experiment and needs much more work. Your flashes are essentially random and the information cannot be relied upon to solve the team's challenges because it might never pop up. When it does, great. But sending your team into situations on the mere hope that you will flash is foolhardy. Agents Walker and Casey are spies. The best we have. They have extensive training over many years. You are not a spy...unless, that is, you want to be. Here's the question I wanted to talk to you about, now that I know you are enthusiastic about the work you are doing. You now have your undergrad degree..."
"Thank you again for that, Sir," said Chuck.
"No thanks necessary, Chuck. Anyway, there's no longer any impediment to getting you into the Farm, or any other training program I want. I can make you a spy, if you want it. Your call, son. You have a real aptitude for this work. I can get you the same training they have, if that's what you want. Just say the word."
Chuck's eyes went wide with surprise. "Oh...wow...Thank you, Sir. Can I think about it?"
"Of course. The offer does not expire," said Graham.
"Ok. Thank you. I'll ...I'll think about it. May I ask, is it something that you want me to do?"
"Maybe. Honestly, I don't know. You've seen what my people do. What they are tasked with doing sometimes. I don't know if that's right for you and only you can say. I just want you to think about it and know that it's open to you if you choose it."
"Ok, Sir. I will do that. Thank you for the opportunity."
"You're welcome, Chuck. Good luck in Switzerland. Try the chocolate."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
A/N2: On February 17, 2008, a little over a month from when this story is set, the Kosovo Assembly voted for independence from Serbia, seceding from that nation. The Western nations immediately recognized its status as a new separate country. Serbia, instead of reacting violently (as many nations have when faced with the secession of a portion of their territory) took Kosovo to court. To Serbia's dismay, in July of 2010 the International Court of Justice in the United Nations ruled that Kosovo's actions did not violate international law. However, the separation of Kosovo continues to be a controversial event to some people. In 2014, Russia cited it as a precedent when the Ukrainian province of Crimea voted to separate from Ukraine and become a part of Russia. Western objections to the Crimean vote were labelled, by the Russians, as no more than blatant hypocrisy.
A/N3: DAP, the Service for Analysis and Prevention, was the Swiss domestic intelligence agency, roughly the equivalent of Britain's MI-5. The foreign intelligence agency was the Strategic Intelligence Service, SND. As of 2010, they were merged to form the Intelligence Service of the Federation (FIS). At the time this story is set, however, they were still separate organizations. And, of the two, it seemed most likely that the agency tasked with domestic security would be alerted to allied spies operating in their neighborhood.