A/N: Ownership of Chuck is the existential question of our generation. Ok, it's not really. It's not even a question.
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Kaplan threw his gun on the bed and raised his hands.
Casey said, "Up against that wall." With his gun barrel, Casey gestured at a wall near the bed.
Following Casey's instruction, Kaplan assumed a position on the wall with his hands splayed and his feet apart. Leaning forward to keep himself off balance. Cleary, he knew the desired position and choose to cooperate rather than instigate a fight against three professional spies with handguns pointed at him.
Holstering his weapon, Casey approached Kaplan, walking across the bed so as not to block the sightlines of either of his partners. "Good to see you know the drill, Kaplan," said Casey with seeming appreciation.
"Not my first time, Rambo," Kaplan said. He was positioned to look at Sarah. "Quick question, Love," he said to her as Casey began to frisk him. "The gent at dinner. You two seemed very real. Are you that good of an actress?"
"He's my fiancé," said Sarah.
"Ah. Lucky lad," said Kaplan.
"I'm the lucky one," said Sarah, without changing her expression or her aim in the slightest. She looked very dangerous.
Kaplan nodded.
Casey performed a quick frisk of Kaplan from the waist down. There were no hidden weapons. While he was searching Kaplan's person, Amy was checking the man's clothes and shoes. From a pocket of his jacket, she took an oddly configured computer chip in a plastic container and dropped it on the bed while she was emptying his pockets. She took a ceramic blade and a plastic handcuff key from the lining of his jacket and a plastic blade from the inner sole of his shoe. No doubt he'd later outfit himself with metal tools on this side of the airport metal detectors. Otherwise, the clothing seemed innocuous.
Chuck came in carefully, keeping out of the way of anyone pointing a gun, and saw Kaplan being frisked by Casey. Turning his head, he immediately caught sight of Amy's almost naked form and blurted, "Oh, boy." He turned and left without another word.
Amy retrieved Kaplan's duffel bag from the floor, where it had been consigned as they had been making better use of the bed, and dropped the items she had found into it together with Kaplan's gun. Neither Casey nor Sarah was paying the slightest attention to her unclothed state.
Casey said to Kaplan, "Get dressed." Sarah continued to cover him with her weapon.
Kaplan began to comply as Chuck returned with the clothes Amy had been wearing earlier in the evening. "Here you go," he said, handing them to her while being very careful not to look at her bare chest.
"Thanks, Chuck. That's very nice of you," she said. "These are for you, I think." She handed him the computer chip she had found in Kaplan's jacket and Kaplan's cell phone. He dropped the phone into his pocket and looked at the computer chip closely for a half minute or so, frowned and put it into his jacket pocket.
As Amy started to cover herself, Chuck said, still taking pains not to look at her, "I've got our gear ready. I'll just get Kaplan's stuff together and we'll be ready to get out of here."
Amy said, "Dopp kit in the bathroom." Chuck nodded and headed that way.
"Things turned sideways. Better to get him someplace we can talk to him. Castle?" asked Casey.
"Yeah," said Sarah. "'Bout time we broke that place in."
Once Kaplan was dressed and Casey had cuffed his hands behind his back, Team B led him out of his room and into the hallway.
Between the door to his suite and the elevators, two men in suits came towards them. There was something definitely "off" about these men, obvious in the first instant they were spotted. An angry aggressive vibe and the clear expectation of meeting Team B and their prisoner. When the two groups saw each other, they stopped immediately. The two men made the first move and reached for their weapons, almost snarling in their anger.
To Chuck's eyes, it all seemed to play out in slow motion.
Sarah, Amy and Casey did not begin to draw their weapons until after the men had begun to draw theirs and, although both Sarah and Casey were faster, the other men had the advantage in having drawn first. The two men had their weapons out and were extending them forward with stiff arms.
While the men were moving into firing position, bringing their weak hands up to support their dominant gun hands, Casey and Sarah only had their weapons cleared of their holsters and moving around their bodies to the targets. Amy was at least a second behind them.
Rather than extend their weapons and support the firing hands, both Sarah and Casey fired instinctively from the hip the instant their weapons cleared their own bodies without seeming to aim. Yet, such was their speed and accuracy that they had put two shots each into the center of mass of their opponents while the others were still preparing to fire. Even though they had drawn first, the men died on their feet. It was like an old-fashioned western gunfight, but with one party being caught by surprise and winning anyway. Amy, standing behind her partners, didn't get a shot off.
Team B checked on each other and nodded towards the elevators. Kaplan looked deeply impressed and mumbled something that sounded like "Bloody hell."
"Stairway is safest..." began Casey, stepping over the two dead men, now in a hurry. The adrenaline was pumping hard and fast.
"Yeah, but speed may be more important right now. Let's get Kaplan away from here. They seem to want him pretty badly. Not even any demands, just right for the kill," said Sarah. "There's no telling how many more are here. I think we should try the elevator."
"Agreed," said Casey. He looked at Amy, who nodded her head. Amy, Casey and Sarah had their weapons unholstered and were carrying the same pointed to the ground with fingers off the triggers for the time being.
Getting into the elevator, Amy said, her voice tight with tension, "Not the garage. Let's go a floor or two up. In case..."
"Ambush. Yeah, good idea, Turner," said Casey.
They exited the elevator a couple of floors up from the garage and took the stairs down the remainder of the way, moving carefully if quickly, as if they expected an armed reception around the next corner. As they went, they heard the sound of heavy feet moving quickly down the stairs behind them. Team B exchanged glances, communicating what they all knew.
From the stairwell to the garage itself was a long corridor. Sarah said, "With one in front..."
"Makes sense. Hammer and anvil," said Casey.
"I've got this one," said Amy, peeling off from the rest of the team to pass through a doorway on the right of the corridor.
The balance of the team continued to the door to the garage. Sarah pushed the crash bar and opened the door. Casey hung back but took in the garage as best he could from the doorway. Sarah and he exchanged looks. Casey nodded and Sarah darted forward. Casey taking position to cover her. Chuck held a trank gun on Kaplan with one hand on the man's arm, ready to lead him out. He had put down the bags he was carrying for this part of the exfiltration.
From cover behind an SUV, having looked around the garage, Sarah nodded to Casey and Chuck. They moved forward with Kaplan. That was when seven or eight men popped up from behind parked cars and began to fire at them with submachine guns.
All four of them took cover behind cars. Sarah said, "Stay safe, Chuck. We'll be back."
Chuck nodded and said, "Be safe."
Sarah nodded once and disappeared into the mass of parked cars with Casey, keeping low and moving fast.
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Amy's view of the hallway was very narrow, restricted by the door to a slim slice of the corridor in front of her. She saw three men in suits, with their hands full of submachine guns, pass through her field of view. She heard one say, "We take them from behind. Keep Kaplan alive, but kill the others."
The other two men acknowledged their leader's instructions.
She waited until they were five or six paces in front of her and then stepped out of the room silently behind them, her weapon in both her hands and held straight out in front of her.
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Chuck and Kaplan huddled behind a car when they heard the sound of gunfire from behind the door they had just come through. Moments later, Amy came out holding a confiscated submachine gun in one hand and the bags Chuck had been carrying in the other. Working her way from car to car, she came towards them.
Kaplan said, "Look, you're making a mistake."
"Uh, huh," said Chuck.
"No. Listen to me clearly. I'm not Tom Kaplan. I'm MI-6 working undercover. My name is Cole Barker..."
For the first time in weeks, Chuck flashed. Cole Barker. MI-6. Photos from his ID cards showing the same man. Scots ancestry. Distinguished service award from the Queen from three years prior. British Army before his time with MI-6, the leader of a team of SAS commandoes who fast-roped from a helicopter onto the wing of a hijacked plane at Heathrow to successfully save the hostages.
Barker noticed that Chuck seemed to have a bit of a seizure and then look at him with fresh eyes.
Amy joined them behind the car. She maneuvered to get a look at the situation. "Dammit," she said. "Casey and Sarah are pinned down in the center. Some of the Fulcrum guys are keeping them under fire while the rest converge on their flanks. I'm going to try to …"
Chuck took his keychain from his jacket pocket and said, "Amy, give him your pistol."
"What?" she asked, surprised.
Chuck used the handcuff key on his keychain and unlocked Barker's cuffs. "Do it. Trust me," Chuck said to Amy with urgency.
She looked at Chuck for a moment of two and then took her pistol from behind her back and held it out to Barker grip first.
Barker took the weapon, a Glock 19, from a very confused Amy and said to Chuck, "Why do you believe me, Chuck?"
"Because you are one of the good guys, Barker," said Chuck. With a gesture to the rest of the gunfight he said, "Now go prove me right."
"Right." Barker turned to Amy and said, "They won't expect it if we can make it to the flanks and outflank the flankers, while the rest of your team is pinned down in the center. Want to try left and I'll try right?" He choose the more dangerous option for himself, with a farther distance to traverse to get into position.
Amy looked at him as her mind was catching up with unfolding events. She gave a quick glance at Chuck. Chuck nodded at her. Looking at Barker she said, "Ok." Amy took off between cars, peeling off to the left, staying low to avoid being seen by their opponents in the deadly game of tag.
Barker watched as Chuck said, into his watch, "Sarah, Casey, Kaplan is on our side. Don't shoot him. I'll explain later."
Barker went to the right. Soon enough, he caught a glimpse of one of the Fulcrum agents crouched on one knee behind a car. Barker hit the ground and fired twice under several parked cars, hitting the man in the ankle and knee. The wounded Fulcrum agent flopped to the ground with a howl. Barker, still firing under the cars, killed the man and moved to his position. He jammed Amy's pistol under his belt behind him. He picked up the SMG, an H&K MP-5, from the dead Fulcrum man and checked it. Then he took the ammunition clips the man had been carrying and tucked them into his pants pocket. He felt better knowing he was at least as well armed as the opposition.
Amy made her way around the edge of the garage to the far side of the group of men firing at Sarah and Casey. She caught two of the enemy in enfilade and killed them both quickly. The others, surprised by the attack from the unexpected direction, turned to face her. Casey and Sarah rose from cover firing to engage those men. They were surprised to see Barker stand up as well and kill two others who were aiming to take them from the other side. He immediately dropped the partially empty clip from his weapon and had jammed a fresh clip into it before the other one had hit the floor.
The final two Fulcrum men, suddenly finding themselves outnumbered two-to-one, bolted into a car and started it up. It was just beginning to move when Barker leapt from his position onto the hood of the car he'd been behind. He ran across a dozen parked cars, leaping from hood to hood until he reached the car with the Fulcrum men. He landed on the hood just as it was gaining speed. He stood up on the moving car with his SMG in one hand. Shooting at point blank range through the windshield at his feet, he killed both the driver and the passenger.
The car began to swerve. Barker dove off and rolled to a stop as the Fulcrum car, now driverless, crashed into a pillar. He rose to his feet with athletic ease.
Sarah, Casey and Amy came out from behind the cars and stared at the man they knew as Kaplan with surprise.
Amy summed up all their feelings when she said, "What the hell is going on?"
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A/N2: The rule of cool. If it's cool, let's put it in the show. The audience will love it so long as it's awesome enough. Makes no sense? Who cares? They won't notice anyway and, if they do, they'll forgive it if it's cool enough. So, in canon, let's have Team B take Cole across a rooftop parking deck (as they never have before) where there happens to be a hovering attack helicopter/gunship just waiting for them at exactly the right time (somehow knowing that they didn't take a cab to the hotel or give their car to the valet or something) that immediately starts shooting because...well, I honestly have no idea why it started shooting...so Cole can shoot it down by causing an explosion and fire with some kind of propane or something on the roof that doesn't burn down the whole freaking hotel but luckily causes the helicopter to burst into flame and explode and fall to the street below where it doesn't crush or immolate some old lady out walking her dog. I'm sure Beckman was very forgiving of the mayhem caused in central LA (Graham was dead by then in canon, so he couldn't be pissed off). But it was cool and Cole was totally badass, so I forgive it. However, I just couldn't replicate it here (although I hope I have shown Cole as a badass). Oh, and in terms of shooting down an attack helicopter, as the muj discovered in Afghanistan in the 80's, you are much better off shooting at it from above (if you can manage that) rather than below. Just sayin' in case the question ever comes up at a cocktail party, you'll be prepared with the answer.
A/N3: The team knows that Cole Barker is a good guy. Good news. Thoughts? Questions? Suggestions? Oh, and if you are in the mood, stop over to the Facebook page for Chuck fanfiction. Love to chat with you there. Stay safe, everyone. Mask up. The worst is coming.