A/N: Plenty of calls coming in regarding the ownership of Chuck, but no one seems to know about the birthmark.
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Team B sat at a table in a Santa Fe bar, sipping beers and waiting for their lunch to arrive. They were a somewhat discouraged quartet. They had had Bennett within reach and let him slip away into the desert.
"Ok," said Chuck. "We can beat ourselves up or we can find him and nail him."
"Wait for the Am Ex card to be used again?" asked Amy. She didn't sound optimistic.
"Maybe, I don't know. If he can figure out that that's how we found him, he'll deep six it and start using cash or something. I'm sure he's got a large pile of cash. For sure he'd have had that available as part of his contingency plan to run."
"So, what do you suggest, Bartowski?" asked Casey.
"Well, we know something today that we didn't know yesterday."
"What's that?" asked Sarah.
"We know he stopped. We thought he'd be north of here, but he's not. He drove from Virginia all the way to Santa Fe and this is the first time he's stopped for a couple of days. Why? Why did he stop in Santa Fe?"
"Nice town," said Amy. "Good food?"
"Some contacts here? More Fulcrum men? A cell?" asked Sarah.
"Maybe," said Chuck slowly, looking like he'd just came up with an idea. "Maybe. But. Guys, in 1943 the most brilliant scientists in the country came to Santa Fe. They were told to go to 109 East Palace, just a few blocks from here. And from there they disappeared for years. No contact..."
"Los Alamos. Los Alamos National Labs," said Casey. "Of course. It's just outside of town."
"Why would a Fulcrum operative want something there? It's all nuclear stuff, isn't it? Bomb design." asked Amy. "Shit. I hope Fulcrum isn't trying to get their hands on a bomb."
"Naw. After the Cold War ended it branched out. They do all kinds of science there now," said Casey.
"Hang on, guys. I have an idea," Chuck said, finishing his beer and leaving the empty bottle on the table.
Chuck took out his phone and headed outside the restaurant to the street. He hit a saved number.
Ellie said, "Hi, little brother. What's up?"
"Work question, El. Are any components of the Intersect from Los Alamos? Any of the research? Anything like that?"
"Yeah. Actually, the Image Harvester is fabricated and programmed there. Why?"
"I'll give you two guesses," said Chuck.
"Fulcrum. I don't need the second guess," she said grimly.
"Please don't tell anyone I asked. We are sort of working off the books on this one. Beckman wanted Casey to stand down. The Fulcrum guy we're after has a history with Casey. She thought Casey would be too emotional, so she pulled us off."
"Oh, that's just plain stupid. Does she want to catch this guy or not?"
"Yeah. I know. Tell me about the Harvester. How big is it?"
"It's about two feet, by one foot, by one foot, I think. I saw the specs for the old one Bryce blew up," said Ellie.
"Has it been delivered yet?"
"No. The new one is expected in the next month or two. We don't really need it until we go live with the actual upload, so we have time."
"Ok. Thanks. Do you know the name of the scientist working on it?"
"Hold on," she said. He heard the sound of a computer keyboard clicking. "I'm just looking for the email."
"Thanks, El. While you're typing, I'll change topics for a moment. Sarah talked to her friend Carina. She's on board about the wedding and being a bridesmaid."
"Oh, that's great. Was she excited?"
"Yeah. She said she was crying. And kept reminding us that she was the first one to tell us we would get married."
"She did?"
"Yeah. She was around in October and as she was leaving she told Sarah not to pick an ugly bridesmaid dress. Sarah and I think she was teasing, but she's taking the position that she was prescient."
"Ha. I think I'll like her. She sounds funny," said Ellie, laughing.
"She's... a bit of an acquired taste, I'd say," he responded.
"Here it is. Dr. Gilman. Dr. Tony Gilman. I don't know about his team, but I guess he's got to have one."
"Ok. Thanks."
"You sure you guys are ok freelancing? I can get Langston to overrule Beckman if you want me to."
"No, thanks, El. I thought of that myself, but that would just piss her off more. Better that she only finds out once we nail the guy we're looking for."
"Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. Good luck, little brother. Give Sarah and the rest of the team kisses for me."
"Not Casey," said Chuck with a grin.
"Ok, not Casey," said Ellie, laughing.
Chuck went back inside. Their lunches had arrived. Posole, Navajo frybread with chorizo, green chile stew, and a burrito. Casey had ordered Chuck another beer.
Holding up his fresh beer, Chuck said, keeping his voice low in a public setting, "Thanks. That was Ellie. Dr. Tony Gilman from Los Alamos is working on a component for the Intersect."
Sarah held up her beer bottle and said, "Bingo."
They clicked bottles.
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After the lunch plates had been cleared, they continued to sit at the table in the bar, sipping beer and planning. They knew two things. Bennett was stopped in Santa Fe for the first time since fleeing Virginia and a component of the Intersect was being created nearby.
"I think we have to work off the assumption that Bennett is here for that Intersect thing," said Sarah. "Otherwise, we have nothing to go on."
"Yeah," said Casey. "If we're wrong, we're wrong. It's the best shot we have."
"True, but here's what we don't know," said Chuck. "Does he have a team or is he operating solo? Does he have a man inside? Maybe someone on Gilman's team..."
"Or Gilman himself?" asked Amy.
"Or part of the security staff?" asked Casey.
"Right, or a combination of those," said Chuck. "But, unless they scrapped any operation because he was spotted, we know it's got to be right away. Within the next twenty-four hours."
"How do we know that, Kid?" asked Casey.
"Because he knows we're here looking for him. He saw Amy talking to the Santa Fe police. He can't hang around the city without running a huge risk of being caught. He'll have to move quickly. I'd be surprised if we see him in town again."
"Speaking of which," said Sarah. "Any chance it gets back to Beckman that we are here looking for Bennett?"
Amy said, "I don't think so. The SFPD was able to confirm that he's wanted and they are looking for him now too. They notified the Feds, so Beckman will know by now that he's surfaced, but shouldn't know that we are here. At least I don't think so. The officers were good with my credentials, but they wouldn't have any need to put our names into the system. We may get some company soon, though, I guess."
"So, we're probably ok for as long as he is. When the company arrives, we'll be made and Beckman will be on to us immediately," said Casey. "If we want to wrap this up without getting reamed by the brass, we'll have to do it quick." He looked particularly unhappy about the prospect.
"We are under the same time constraint Bennett is. How big is the thing?" asked Sarah.
Chuck showed with his hands and said, "Too big to put in a pocket. Too big to not miss if it disappeared."
"Ok, so my guess is, unless they have both an inside man and a security man both, they are going to do a raid of some kind," said Casey.
"What if they have both the inside and outside men?" asked Amy.
"Then why did they wait for Bennett to get to Santa Fe? He's the martial arts expert. That smells like raid to me," said Chuck.
Casey nodded and Amy said, "Yeah. That makes sense."
"If it's a raid, I'd like to get us inside to stop it and catch that son of bitch," said Casey. "But there's no way to do that without coming clean to Beckman."
Sarah looked at Chuck with a half-smile and said, "Well, I wouldn't say 'no way.'"
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The head of security for Los Alamos took them into the Intersect room. "Well, they tell me this is where you are going to be."
Sarah said, "Thank you, sir. I'm sure it will only be a couple of days at most. After that, we can assume the danger has passed. Thank you for your hospitality."
The man grinned without humor and said, "Welcome. And happy to hear it. I don't like excitement."
Dressed in white lab coats, Casey, Sarah and Amy were in a warehouse sized room filled with equipment of all varieties, barely any of which they could name. The room was all white, presumably to make it easy to keep clean. Set into one wall was a large vault containing the Image Harvester that they had assumed, or at least hoped, that Bennett would be after.
"I'll leave you here, then. Should we alert Secretary Bodman that you are in position?"
"No need. We've been in touch already," said Sarah, with a pleasant smile.
"Good. I don't like talking to Washington. Those guys creep me out."
Casey started to laugh, "It's the eyes, right? They never seem to be looking in the right place, right?"
"Damn, dude, yeah. Exactly," he said. He and Casey exchanged laughing fist bumps.
He left them alone. Casey said, all humor gone in an instant, "Ok. Chuck, anything we can do other than waiting?"
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Chuck was outside the grounds of the Laboratory, in the driver's seat of the Porsche with computers spread out on the passenger seat next to him. "Not really," said Chuck in their ears. "I've already fixed it to assure that if they try to confirm the email from Secretary Bodman it gets to me and not him. I've already taken a clone of the video feed, so we can watch as Bennett approaches, with or without a team behind him."
Chuck had sent Los Alamos security a fake email from the Department of Energy warning of an imminent raid on the Intersect facility and alerting the Los Alamos security team for the arrival of a three person special team to address that particular threat. Had they not been freelancing on this mission, the email would have been real and would have been arranged by Graham or Beckman. As it was, it was just handled by Chuck. Casey had helped him put the message into bureaucratic language, even though Chuck thought it was so convoluted as to be almost totally unreadable. Casey had assured him that was the way all Washington messages read. Casey had won the disagreement.
Team B settled down to wait. It was past midnight when there was a burst of static on all the video feeds. Once the static cleared, Chuck checked on his team, but they were waiting in the Intersect room just as they had been before...in fact, exactly as they had been before.
"Sarah, wave to me," he said.
"Ok," she said. On the screen in front of him, the image of Sarah did not wave.
"Guys, the video feed is looped. They are using my trick. I'm looking at what you guys were doing a half hour ago. This is it. We guessed right. They are coming in. And doing it now," he said.
"Right, Kid. Thanks," said Casey.
"Good luck, guys," he said.
How could he help? He had an idea. The Lab encompassed 22,000 acres of territory. If Bennett was going to sneak in, he'd want to locate his transport at the closest point on the perimeter to the Intersect building. Chuck checked a map of the facility.
He started the car and began to drive without lights. He fished out a pair of NVG's and put them on. Luckily, he was nearby for radio coverage with his team. After about three miles he came upon two cars parked near the fence on the side road, about where he'd expected to find them. One was a small sedan, the other a red jeep. They were deserted. Chuck checked the plate on the jeep. This one had an New Mexico plate, not Bennett's Virginia plate. Was it the wrong red jeep? Chuck looked closely. The jeep was covered in dust from the desert, but the plate was clean and dust free. It had obviously been taken from somewhere and put onto the jeep after it had come out of the desert. The Virginia plate was probably on a scrap heap somewhere.
Chuck touched his watch. "Guys, I don't think Bennett is alone. I found the cars and there's a sedan next to his jeep."
"Ok, thanks for the heads up, Chuck, now get away from them. In case Bennett were to come back, I don't want you anywhere nearby," said Sarah.
"Yes, Mom," he said.
"Chuuuuccckkkk?" she said, seemingly on the verge of getting annoyed.
"Right, right, right. Just kidding," he said.
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Casey, Amy and Sarah tried to look like busy scientists working late on a project. They feared if they looked like an armed contingent of agents, they might scare off the very people they wanted to catch.
Amy heard a whisper of sound behind her, caught a hard blow to the head and collapsed into blackness.
At the sound of Amy's body hitting the floor both Casey and Sarah came out of their seats to face five ninjas dressed all in white. Casey rolled his eyes. "White ninjas? Come on. Seriously, guys. You watch too much GI Joe. You guys are embarrassing."
The one in the rear said, "Take them out. I'll get the door to the vault open." It was Bennett.
The four ninjas moved in on the two spies and attacked. Sarah and Casey drew their guns, but the first things lost were the weapons, which were knocked out of their hands. From there, the blows and blocks flew thick, fast and hard. Two of the attackers focused on each of Casey and Sarah. The parties of three fighters seemed to separate and move around the large room. Neither was scoring decisive strikes although in each case it was two against one.
At a point, Sarah had maneuvered her two attackers in front of her, one of them standing directly behind Casey. Sarah called, "Now, Case."
Casey spun away from the men in front of him and and connected his spinning elbow with the side of the head of the man behind him, knocking the man flying to lay on the ground unconscious. With his back to them, both of Casey's attackers moved in on Casey immediately. Sarah dove forward and slid under Casey's legs. Her feet kicked out in opposite directions to the insides of the forward man's knees. As they gave way, he screamed in pain and began to buckle forward. Casey executed a quick back kick to the man's face, throwing him backward into the other one.
In an instant, the fight was evenly matched. Sarah came to her feet with a flickering shoulder spring and moved in on the attacker in front of her. With no help from their friends, the two remaining ninjas were grossly outmatched.
Casey closed in on the man he was fighting and grappled with him. That may have been a mistake as the man threw off Casey's balance and Casey, with the man on top, fell backwards. Casey's right shoulder hit the edge of a desk very hard, deadening his right arm. Casey found himself lying on his back, his opponent sitting astride him punching him repeatedly in the face. With his left hand Casey reached up and grabbed the man's white hood, twisting it to cover his eyes. The now-blind ninja reached up to straighten the hood. While he was doing that, Casey punched him in the throat very hard. The man shuddered with agony. Casey grabbed him by the shoulder and rammed his head into the desk behind them, over and over again. He fell senseless to the ground.
Getting to his feet, Casey saw that Sarah was taking care of herself just fine and turned his attention to Bennett, who had let his men fight while he had gone to open the door to the vault. Casey saw the window above them closing as Bennett made his escape, leaving his men behind.
As Casey turned back to the remaining action of Sarah versus the last ninja, he saw her dodge a straight punch, grab the man's wrist and throw him to the ground over the fulcrum of her hip. She stomped on the man's head, putting him out.
They looked at the four bodies on the floor, five, counting Amy.
"Bennett?" she said, a little out of breath.
"In the wind again. Priority, though. Let's look at the vault, then Amy," he said.
They moved quickly across the large room to the door to the vault containing the Image Harvester. There was plastic explosive jammed into the edge between the vault door and the frame it sat in. There was a detonator, but bare wires at the other end. No triggering device had been attached to the detonator. Bennett had fled before he had the chance to arm it. Using his left hand, Casey reached out and casually removed the detonator from the explosive. He dropped it lightly onto a nearby table.
"So much for that," said Sarah, going to check on Amy.
"Yup."
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A/N2: Scientists and their families who arrived at 109 East Palace in 1943 were taken to a facility under construction in the nearby area of Los Alamos and housed there for years with the job of designing and building the first atomic bombs. The plutonium (Fat Man) and enriched uranium (Little Boy) were produced elsewhere. The area was selected, at least in part, because the first director of the Manhattan Project, Robert J. Oppenheimer, used to hike in that area of New Mexico and liked it there. He was right. It is a beautiful area.
A/N3: The Los Alamos National Laboratory is under the direction of the Department of Energy. Secretary Samuel Bodman was the Secretary of Energy in 2008.
A/N4: White ninjas? I know. I know. I just liked the visual. I guess I've been feeling silly lately. Comments?