Chuck vs The Wayward Legionnaire
Chapter 3: Escape. Part 1.
20th March 2009 Burbank. Los Angeles. 9.30am.
It had been a busy week for Mike Travers, man on the ground for the group or Ghosts as they had now started calling themselves, Oisin had been true to his word, he had used his wealth to fund the others with the seeds for new identities and new businesses, and for Mike, the means to get what they needed to facilitate Chuck's escape.
Chuck and Akio had slaved over the Intersect coding, finally the night before they had announced to the group that they had a finished copy ready for depositing in Castle's servers. Warlock and Arjun had also prepared a beefed-up version of Janus for the American IC world, and both had been downloaded to a special laptop that Mike was now bringing to Chuck's Buy More on the guise of a corporate client.
He gingerly made his way across the Buy More parking lot, it was a hot day again in LA, but he'd parked his car well away from the store, changing the plates well before he'd arrived. It was a car he'd never use again after today anyway. He glanced at himself in a sandwich shop window as he walked by, the lettering said Lou's, if he wasn't so nervous, he might have stopped for a bite, it smelled delicious inside. The suit was a good fit, he hadn't worn one for a while, but he had the bored executive look down pat, he was unrecognisable to himself, he'd altered his appearance with a dye job and a few cheek fillers.
Show time, he thought as he entered the store, there was the usual lunchtime crowd in, they'd planned it that way, safety in numbers, even so, he'd hardly taken a few steps when the imposing figure of John Casey stepped in his path.
Casey had noticed the newcomer almost immediately, he frowned as he made his way over, "Can I help you Sir?" he asked.
Travers was not the type to get intimidated, but John Casey was an imposing kind of guy. He had a few inches and about thirty pounds of muscle on Travers. Think calm thoughts Travers said to himself as he collected himself.
"You might be able to, I'm here to see a Mr. Chuck Bartowski, Nerd Herd, he was recommended by my office, I have a computer issue". He raised his laptop case. Casey could see the Buy More Logo of the Prism laptop model. "This company supplies our hardware and technical support, so they pointed me here and I have an emergency issue, is he available?"
John Casey studied the man before him, his voice had been steady and his manner amiable, but something felt a little off, he stepped to a PC screen on the floor. "Do you have a work order, Sir?"
"Of course,", responded the man, he pulled a folded print out from his pocket, "I have a copy on my phone here also", he added. Casey said nothing but cross referenced the number on the screen, as he did so, Chuck came walking out of the back area, he noticed Casey and Travers and hurriedly made his way over. "Mr. Kline?", he inquired nervously. It was his first time to meet one of the Ghosts in the flesh so to speak.
Mike smiled, if Casey hadn't of been present, he might have quipped a reply, however he looked Chuck in the eyes and mouthed be cool. Chuck took the hint; he extended his hand, and they shook politely. "Yes. Mr. Bartowski is it?". "You can call me Chuck, corporate emailed me this morning, I've been expecting you, a problem with the hard drive, is it?"
Casey grunted, the service request was confirmed, "Bartowski, one of yours", he turned to hand back the email. "Thanks Casey, if you could come this way Sir, the workspace is back here I can run a diagnostic…". He led Travers off. "Thank you, Chuck, I've an important meeting tomorrow and of course my hard drive crashes". He huffed annoyed.
They proceeded to the cage, Chuck had a small iPlayer on speakers playing some music on the work desk just in case of any eavesdropping, he sat down motioning Mike to join him as he attempted to boot up the laptop. Of course, it didn't. They had disabled it last night, as well as hacked the Buy More system to plant the fake work order.
"What do you think?" He asked Chuck, maintaining the pretence further. Chuck threw a cautious look around the area before responding to Mike. "You made it". Mike threw a similar look around himself; it was easy to feel the paranoia that the surveillance imposed on Chuck. "Yes", he murmured, "I've been here a while". Chuck looked surprised at that.
"Don't worry Chuck, there was a lot to set up, including finding that power relay substation this morning for Castle and replacing the secondary switch with that faulty one you and Kryst and Baldur found, are you guys sure it's going to work, or not work as the case may be?".
Chuck smiled grimly, that had been his next question, if Mike had performed his task, and with that conformation Mike had, he now knew Castle was on a countdown to a power failure. "Yes, Mike and thanks, it can't have been fun in the sewers finding that substation. "
"Most fun I've had in ages", he grinned, "But tomorrow the real fun begins, are you ready Chuck?" The younger man looked around the store area as if he was seeing it for the last time, which in a way he was. "As I'll ever be, Mike, I can't thank you enough for staying near Ellie and Devon and Morgan, she's going to be torn up when I go…." His voice caught. Travers felt for him, they had discussed many options for Chuck's disappearance, but there was no safe way to tell his sister. If anything, the reaction to his going they hoped would act in Chuck's favour, but it was a hard ask of the man, the group had learned a lot about Chuck and knew the siblings had a very tight bond.
Mike staying in the area and monitor things until Chuck's situation was solid was just the right thing to do. "You know we are going to let them know at some point Chuck? It's not going to be too long before things settle and if it gets too much, we'll find a way, I already have options, but if Beckman suspects she knows…". He didn't have to spell it out. Chuck already knew what Beckman was capable of. Ellie would be Beckman's strongest weapon against him if there was even a hint, an idea, that she knew anything. The lies of the near two years were mounting up and here he was about to add an atomic bomb to that pile, he worried if Ellie would forgive him even if he did find the opportunity to tell her in the future. He sighed, better than a bunker though, he told himself.
"You managed to get the two downloads from Akio and Dieter?"
"Yes, they're encoded into the hard drive just as you asked, they're compressed so the downloads will be fast, Janus is relatively minor in size compared to your Intersect version, best we could do but we followed your specs on this laptop, so it should go as planned. Hopefully you can adjust the version on the server that the NSA Intersect is housed on."
Chuck nodded, just then Casey made an appearance at the cage door, "… seems like the hard drive alright Mr. Kline. I'll have to back up your data before I make a more detailed examination, but I should have it back for you by 6pm this evening, is that ok?"
"Thanks Chuck, I really appreciate this, I'll be sure to let corporate know they have a good team here in Burbank. Here's my number if you can have it by then or sooner let me know. Now I have a meeting to get to."
"Thanks, Mr Kline, I'll do my best. Have a good day." Replied Chuck as he pocketed Mike's business card. They both stood, Chuck pretended surprise at Casey's appearance. He walked Mike out. Casey followed discretely.
"Alright Casey?", he asked, as they watched the departing form of Mike Travers. "Hmmff" came from the NSA agent, something still felt hinkey, but the service request and identity check on Mr. Thomas Kline of Altech Inc had checked out. Casey decided he was seeing trouble where none existed. He shook his head and glared at Chuck.
"Come on moron, we have a briefing in 10!". He made for the locker room and the connecting tunnel to Castle, Chuck grabbed up his bag and slid the laptop into it, he did a quick check to make sure he had all his tools and a torch. He flicked that on and off, the light was bright. Happy with what he saw he threw the bag on his shoulder and headed after Casey.
Outside, Travers made his way slowly to his car, his heartrate dropped back to normal, and he took a cleansing breath as he got into his car. Chuck hadn't exaggerated his handlers' abilities at all, he was sure that the big NSA agent had smelt his fear as he tried to play it cool. It was mission complete however, he had managed his hand off. The ball was firmly in Chuck's court now and he wished him luck. He started his car and headed off; he did have several appointments to make.
Back at the Castle, the morning briefing was just about over when without warning the lights flickered and the General's transmission cut out as the room plunged into sudden darkness. There was a brief pause and then the emergency lighting came on, a small alarm also came on with an automated voice announcing the power was out. There was a look of surprise on Casey's face as he stood up and walked to a non-functioning terminal in a vain attempt to find out what happened. What the hell he thought, didn't this whole complex have its own separate power supply?
Chuck had also stood and made his way over to another terminal, he looked at the inert system, nothing. Good, he thought, now to get the ball rolling. "Casey, I think the main board may be out, in which case I better try to soft boot the systems back online, that power cut was sudden and completely knocked everything out, if the systems try and automatically power up they may cause some damage if they're not synched, if I can get a hand I think I can do it from the server room if some else works the relays on the main board in the supply closet". He shot an enquiring glance at Casey as if seeking permission.
Casey wasn't an idiot, he knew Bartowski was a technician and it made sense, he nodded. Chuck smiled and grabbed his satchel. Casey turned to a member of the strike team, "Hawkins! You're up!". "Sir!" Hawkins replied and making his way over he listened to Chuck as he walked him through the procedure. They moved off. Casey shouted after them, "Bartowski! Get communications online first, the General is waiting!". "Wilco Casey!", yelled back Chuck.
Chuck showed Hawkins the board, they had taken some walkies, so they did a quick test and Chuck headed back to the server room, he was about to enter when a large hand grabbed his head from behind and he was turned to face a scowling Casey.
"Don't screw this up moron!" He intoned darkly, Chuck gave a weak smile and a half-hearted thumbs up before shaking Casey's hand loose and heading in the door.
Inside the server room he stopped for a second and inhaled deeply, he felt his nervousness dissipate, he was in his element here, he quickly crossed to the main server and taking Mike's laptop, which had now been swapped with his own, he quickly attached a cable and connected, he had timed things well, there was still five minutes before the systems would have booted up automatically, but Casey and the strike team didn't know this. He halted the process and quickly downloaded the Janus worm, it was fast! Dieter really had beefed up the compression.
"What are you doing Bartowski?" grunted Casey from the door as he kept a watchful eye on his charge. Chuck launched into a technical explanation that soon had the hardened operator's eyes glazing over and he beat a retreat to the main console in the conference area. Chuck quickly re-established the communications server, from outside he could hear Beckman's strident voice demanding to know what happened, still talking on the walkie to Hawkins, Chuck went through the start-ups for the other servers, meanwhile he secured a second cable to the Intersect server and quickly rebooted that too, the menu screen he relayed to the laptop, and he accessed the Intersect subroutines.
Faster than he had ever worked before, it wasn't long before he found the ones he wanted and with a deft touch supplanted them with the amended ones he and Akio had slaved over, there was no way to know the result until they were downloaded to the next candidate, he almost felt sorry for what that person might endure, but the phrase all's fair in love and war echoed through his thoughts, there was a small surprise package of his own he uploaded too, he wished he could be there when it dropped and he grinned impishly.
On the other side of the Pacific from him in Osaka, Akio Minoru smiled as the Janus worm activated and was already making itself at home in Castle and with Beckman establishing communication again, it was also making itself at home on the Ft Meade NSA servers. He watched as a GUI table he had set up with Dieter slowly went from red to green for both, he eyed the rest of the headings... FBI, CIA, DEA, ATF, Secret Service, they hoped within 48 hours to have infiltrated them too, it depended on the communication now between the NSA and their respective Federal agencies but he was happy in the knowledge that it was just a matter of time.
Back at Castle, Chuck returned to the meeting area and an angry Beckman. "Mr Bartowski, what the hell are you doing with government equipment you're not trained on? I sincerely hope you didn't do any damage!"
"Eh, n-n-no General..." stammered the young man, Casey glared at him from behind.
"...if you recall, I did read the manual on Castle and I remembered that if there was a catastrophic failure that the servers might suffer damage and data loss if a soft boot wasn't performed on start up again… I'm sure that I avoided that …" he trailed off.
Off screen Beckman looked at an NSA engineer that she'd called in, he looked thoughtful at Chuck's explanation. He then asked a few technical questions of Chuck who answered them with ease, he looked at the General and nodded his agreement with Chuck's assessment and fixes. Beckman calmed down, she didn't like the idea of Bartowski poking around but it seemed he had yet again performed outside of the box and restored proper function to the base. She ordered Casey to get a check on the power station, it troubled her that Castle had lost power. She wanted answers.
"Alright, Mr Bartowski, it appears that you … done well" Chuck acknowledged the thanks with a deprecating gesture and made to leave. "You have completed the analysis of today's data?". Chuck stopped," Yes General, Casey has the results." The Agent looked back at the screen, "You'll have the information within the next 30 minutes General". Beckman was still unhappy with the power cut, but she could do nothing until she understood the situation more. She terminated the link.
"I'm heading back to the store Casey, they're probably wondering where I am." Casey grunted, "I'll stick a fake work order in the system covering the missing time, Milbarge won't suspect a thing." Chuck was already making tracks. He needed to get Traver's laptop back to him and find out if the next stage of the plan was ready to go.
20th March 2009 4.00pm.
John Casey was not enjoying himself, the fact he was standing in front of an open power supply unit in the middle of an underground sewer played a large part in this, the other part lay in the conversation between the LA City Engineer and the NSA contractor whose company helped build Castle, they were locked in an argument over the faulty relay. Casey had to bite his tongue to stop himself from slamming their heads together, he'd been waiting for an answer to his question for the past 5 minutes now and in Casey's world that was 4 minutes and 50 seconds longer than he felt he should have!
Grunt # 11, "Hey! I'm in charge here and don't you forget about it!" worked quite well in this case, both men stopped turned to look at him and their eyes immediately dropped to ground level. That was a lot better, he thought, respect or fear, he was happy with either.
"So, GENTLEMEN," he said in a voice dripping menace, "What exactly happened here, and I warn you both, the first one to bullshit me or raise their voice will find out what the bottom of this sewer pipe tastes like….".
Both men looked at the big man looming over them and gulped. They shared a look, a shrug and then the contractor spoke up. "It looks like the relay failed Agent Casey, might have been the installation or a faulty part to begin with, it should have regulated any power surge from the main city grid, but it didn't."
"Was it tampered with?" asked Casey. Both men shared a look again. Casey gritted his teeth. "Was it TAMPERED with?" he repeated, an edge in his tone this time.
This time the Engineer spoke up, "Anything is possible, but the seals were intact on the unit when I opened it. There is a history of this part failing, it's very infrequent, but it has happened."
Casey put his hand out for the part and the seals. He'd get the science geeks back at Meade to take a look. He was in a hurry to get back to Castle and overwatch on the nerd, he'd spent enough time here already. "It's working now, right?" Both men nodded quickly, eager to get away from this scary looking, gravel voiced ogre. "Alright, submit both your reports by 2pm TOMORROW, I don't want to have to come looking for them, are we clear?" He raised an eyebrow. "Crystal, Agent Casey!", they replied. He turned to leave, there was an audible hiss of air as two sets of lungs relaxed and released the tension of held breath, he grinned to himself, still got it.
20th March 2009 Buy More. 4.25pm.
Chuck had returned the laptop, with Casey gone to check on the substation he had decided to get it back to Mike as quickly as possible, Travers had been glad to take advantage of Casey's absence, he 'd turned up quickly and asked Chuck to step into the Home Entertainment Centre, puzzled Chuck complied, Mike had quickly taken out a tape measure and taken his sizes. "What the hell Mike," laughed Chuck. Grinning, Mike had made his notes before replying, "Well, it's definitely on from tomorrow evening Chuck, the Bots are ready, Akio and the rest completed the coding this morning. I think you can see the advantage of starting this then?" They walked out of the centre and headed for the exit.
Chuck could, it was the weekend, although the Government spy agencies ran 24/7 365 days a year, most government drones still went home at the weekend, there was a better than even chance the IT departments wouldn't be as manned as a normal weekday. Saturday evening was an excellent time to start a Cyber-attack. Of course, that meant….
"…So, I'm leaving on Sunday then..."
Mike looked at the younger man. "Yes Chuck, you'll get a service call on Sunday, that'll be real, we're hitting a company with military application software projects here in LA, you'll be called to render assistance because you're going to one of the few that will have some success in dealing with the attack. There, we'll lose your NSA bodyguards and get you to the exit point. I'll tell you more on the way, best not say more until then, just in case." He patted the younger man on the shoulder and left.
Chuck stared into the distance, deep in thought, Morgan popped up beside him. "I think my best friend is missing a certain beautiful blonde someone". His gaze following Chuck's which happened to land on a darkened Orange Orange. Chuck gave a small smile at his friend, "Naw Lil' Buddy, that ship has sailed." Morgan started at that, he knew Chuck and Sarah were going through another low in their relationship, but finished? Never, he knew his main man still loved the blonde bombshell and his intuition told him she felt the same way about Chuck. Like others though, he was puzzled at the lack of pace between the two lovebirds, he hoped Chuck still wasn't hung up on his ex-Jill. He and Elle and Devon had been glad to see the back of her again. "She still on vacation huh?"
"I think so Morgan" he replied. Morgan suddenly had an idea, it was one of his better ones he thought, he didn't like to see his main man down. "Sayyy, isn't Elle and Devon off tomorrow night?" Chuck nodded. "How about we get the old gang of four back together for a Saturday night feast followed by an evening of movie classics and gaming…!" The bearded man added excitedly, starting to get warmed up to the idea himself. He turned to his friend, Chuck was giving him the oddest look, but then the old Chuck smile broke out across his face. "Morgan, that is positively inspired! I'll talk to Ellie and Awesome about it when I get home later. It's a lock!" The two friends laughed and entered the store.
21st March 2009 NSA Cyber Unit. 6.00pm.
Jack Russell, Senior Operations Manager was just settling into his chair after a late lunch when Joe Cardillo, one of his guys burst into his office. "Boss! You need to come see this, NOW!". Surprised and a bit annoyed at his subordinate, he got to his feet and followed Cardillo. He entered the main hall, "This better be worth ….", His voice faltered as he noticed the main screen above him, there was a representation of the cyber defence status defined as a map of the US with the chief agencies and their main IT building locations, Langley for the CIA, Arlington for the DEA and so on, this was usually all in green denoting status green, all good, right now it looked like the 4th of July fireworks had been set off, he was remined of that old movie War Games!
There was a rainbow of colours all over the board and as he glanced around the half empty room, he saw his staff was furiously typing, voices were calling orders to outside offices, headphones were signalling incoming calls. It was starting to get chaotic!
Russell found his voice again, "Joe, what the HELL is going on...?". Joe Cardillo looked from the terminal screen of a colleague he stopped to assist, "Boss, I have no idea, we had some strange traffic about an hour ago, few sites reported a drop in speed, I thought maybe one of our boffins may have run one of their experiments that needed a shitload of processing power and forgot to log the event but no. Five minutes ago this happened!" He gestured towards the screen as he frantically pulled the other person out the way so he could access the terminal himself.
"Who's been hit?", he asked. "Who hasn't?", Joe replied to the other man, "I've had Mahler from the CIA, Gladwell from the FBI, Sobel from Homeland on the horn…". Russell winced; it was a regular who's who of government Counter Intrusion Cyber specialists from their respective organisations.
Whatever Cardillo had been tracking as he fought to regain control of their systems caused him to gasp in alarm! Cardillo quickly scanned an intrusion, the attack, as they now knew it was, had been a tentative probe at first , then it was as if someone had taken a battering ram to the drawbridge that surrounded the government servers, whoever this was, they had cleaved right through a bunch of class A firewalls like a hot knife through butter, the only saving grace as far as he could see was the attackers apparent unfamiliarity with the communication infrastructure between the agencies. But they were everywhere, and they were hunting!
While the attacks were frighteningly strong, they were also strangely unsystematic, Cardillo wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth though. He started to close down certain links to the outside world. He would argue the decision later, they needed time to regroup, he caught the eye of a young intern. "Get on the phones! Tell them we need EVERYBODY! They jumped to obey the senior specialist.
Russell looked on approvingly, he was more of an organisation man, budgets and dealing with the higher ups, Cardillo and his fellow specialists were the workhorses in this field, and he knew the best he could do was stand back and let them at it, he could help with the interagency co-ordination, quickly he raced back to his desk determined to play his part.
21st March 2009 Cyberspace.
Oisin and Akio and a few of the others watched their screens, the attack was on. Akio Minoru had fired up his Botnet army and unleashed it with devastating precision. As a Red hat he had taken down many online criminal gangs, usually by taking their resources away by usurping their Command-and-control access of their botnets, his last had been one of his biggest yet, the Mariposa botnet, a European gang had managed to get one million systems enslaved and up to eight million unique IP addresses. This wasn't the only botnet he'd taken and appointed himself gatekeeper of. He had millions of bots at his disposal. The hardest part had been programming the waves of attacks and simulating human control, but they were geniuses.
Thinking back to when Oisin announced their plan, it had required some delicate balancing, they needed the attack to last 30 hours or more, it had to hit hard enough to distract the authorities from their main goal, the near collapse of the IC communications infrastructure. He had also tagged a small army to hunt and search for all Intersect related files. They wanted the same goal as Chuck Bartowski, to rid their new friend's mind of this burden, only then could they all relax, and Chuck have a semblance of a normal life.
His fingers shot nimbly across his keyboard as he monitored another NSA attempt to trace them, he ended that fast and adding insult to injury caused that sections computers to switch from the English language to Mandarin. He smiled as he imagined the shocked faces of the technicians. He checked his world clock, it was nearly midnight in LA, he hoped Chuck Bartowski was getting a good night's rest, it was going to be a busy day tomorrow for them all.
21st March 2009 Casa Bartowski. 11.40pm.
Ellie Bartowski oompahed quietly drawing a cautious glance from her fiancé Devon, curled into his side on the sofa she gave his thigh an assuring squeeze but motioned with her eyes towards her brother. Devon looked over at his future brother-in-law and all-round good guy. He saw what Ellie had noticed, Chuck had stopped watching the TV and was staring upwards into space. He'd been acting strange, well stranger than usual, all night. Chuck had insisted on cooking his speciality Chicken pepperoni, this time Ellie made sure she supervised, so it actually tasted great for once, he'd paid for Morgan's sudden order of Sizzling Shrimp, let Ellie and Devon choose the movies, and despite the objections of Morgan, hadn't let the games session drag on before he returned to the living area to set up their choices.
If Ellie Bartowski didn't know better, it was almost like he was getting ready to leave for college again. The end credits started rolling on screen and she stood up and started clearing away the debris of the evening's fun. The others quickly lent a hand and then Chuck walked Morgan to the door. When he didn't immediately return, she shooed Devon towards the bedroom, with a knowing wink he whispered to her not to take too long, Grinning, she pointed down the corridor and walked towards the door. She peeked out, Chuck was sitting by the fountain, staring off aimlessly again. She felt herself growing pensive, Sarah related questions had been deflected all night, she hadn't wanted to kill the mood but now finally she had Chuck alone and it was time for some answers!
"Hey, you", she said as she sat down beside him, Chuck pulled his head out of the clouds, he groaned inwardly, he wasn't fooled for an instance, an Ellie interrogation! He had tried to hide it but his sister's finely honed bro-dar had always been in impeccable form, he just hoped Casey hadn't noticed anything too!
"Hey Sis", he tentatively responded, he already decided to let her take the lead and try and steer her off course as much as possible. "So, you and Sarah…. what's going on little brother?".
Chuck Bartowski gave a huge inward shout of relief, Ellie had mistaken his demeanour on the absence of Sarah Walker, not that he wasn't missing the blonde superspy, his heart was all over the place there, but he knew this was probably the last time he was going to sit here with his sister, he wanted so much to be the brother that she had always known, but the past year and a half had placed an impenetrable barrier of lies between the once close siblings. Now he had to act to save the lives of some people, and he was the only one that could.
"Chuck...?". He snapped out his wool gathering, he smiled at his sister, "Sorry Sis, me and Sarah… that's a good question. I wish I had an answer to it. This past year has had its ups and downs…" Ellie nodded. "You do love her Chuck and I know she's crazy about you, so what's the problem?"
"I just don't think I'm enough for her, I'm stuck in the Buy More, I'm living with my fantastic sister and her awesome boyfriend in their apartment, I just don't think I bring enough to the table for a woman like her…".
"Charles Irving Bartowski!", he snapped his head around to his sister, she had a furious look on her face. "Don't you dare! That girl has pulled you out of that five-year-old rut you rotted in since Stanford!" Chuck gulped. "Now I don't know if you noticed but you've been miserable since she left, working all hours, Devon and I have hardly seen you!" She paused, "Chuck, have you even talked with her?" Chuck shook his head, mainly because he hadn't a clue where Sarah was and really, after Casey's ribbing he didn't want to know. Ellie huffed in annoyance, "Chuck, a relationship is all about communication, you have to talk about this stuff with her, when is she due back?"
"I'm not sure Ellie, Thursday or Friday, I think." He replied. Ellie rolled her eyes, "Chuck, this is exactly what I mean, you need to fix this. Ok?"
She put her hands on his shoulders, God he looked like a lost puppy. He looked at her, "Ok Ellie, I'll sort it out, I promise". She smiled. She only wanted the best for him, but he always seemed to need a push. He was just like their dad that way. "I know you will little brother, you're a Bartowski, we work hard for what we want, hmmm?" He patted her arms, "Say Ellie", she looked at him, "can you sit with me here for a while like we used to?". She nodded happily. It was going to be ok. Things were going to work out, she was getting married, and her brother and his wonderful girlfriend were going to be next. The lyrics to an old song popped into her head…the future's so bright I gotta wear shades…. She smiled and leaned her head on her brother's shoulder. The two of them stared lost in thought at the stars above.
22nd March 2009 General Beckman's Office D.C. 4.00am.
Diane Beckman was exhausted, earlier that evening she received a call from her Director of Cyber Security, alerting her to the ongoing attack, since 10pm it had been one meeting after another as she and her agency tried to stem the tide that showed no sign of abating. Finally, DNI Adams at the President's request had called a meeting to find out what the hell was going on and what the collective power of his Law Enforcement and Intelligence communities were doing about it!
She was in her office teleconferencing on a secure line, for the moment, with the heads of the other main Federal agencies, Tom Emerson, Langston Graham's replacement looked just as bleary as her, the other heads, Seagram from the DEA, Abbott, FBI, Pohlman, Homeland Security and Greaney, Secret Service seemed less flustered. They all listened to one of her top analysists Dr. Sheldon Kopp, explain the current situation.
"…. so, our analysis leads us to believe that this attack may be criminal, or hacker related, although the computer power, so to speak is off the charts, foreign state level, so we can't rule out that possibility either. They're very effective, attacks are flowing from all sources...".
DNI Adams not a patient woman to begin with, and not at this late hour, "You don't really have any idea, do you Kopp?" she snarled. Kopp's face burned red for a moment, the other people watching gave silent thanks it was his ass roasting and not theirs. She looked at Tom Emerson.
"Tom, what's the status like out there in the field? Has any of your people been able to shed any light from their sources?". Emerson cleared his throat, "Sorry no, we had to instigate a communications lockdown, some of the attacks were piggybacking in on reports from the field, I had to issue a directive enforcing it, we're down to typewriters and couriers until we can ensure total security has been re-established by the NSA".
All eyes turned to Diane Beckman, she stiffened, well it was her agency that was responsible for the nation's cyber security.
"General Beckman?". She took a deep breath, "Director Adams, we've thrown everything at this but the proverbial kitchen sink, the level of coding is impressive as Dr. Kopp was getting to, this has been well executed, so far we've managed to hold our own, our primary servers were cut off from the main infrastructure, our really important stuff was air gapped anyway, such as nuclear codes, main defence plans, NOC lists for all agencies, but it's the fact that it's so….so unfocused. It jumps from place to place, we're spending so much time firefighting, nobody can tell, who they are, what they want or what the endgame is".
Kopp interjected as well, "Director, it could be a test…"
"Test, Doctor?". Kopp nodded, "See how the multiple agencies react, our military, see how we handle an attack of this magnitude…" Adams digested that for a moment, "What do I tell the President?". Beckman spoke again, "Tell him the truth, we're under attack, but we're fighting back, nothing of consequence has been taken or subverted but we may have to enforce an interagency communications blackout to deny further intrusion."
Adams took another look around the screens in front of her. "Ok everyone, we'll reconvene in 6 hours, hopefully one of you will have some good news by then". She cut her connection.
Just before the others disconnected, Abbott, the FBI Director called out to Beckman. "We've noticed some involvement internally Diane, we're going to need some help nipping that in the bud". Beckman nodded, they'd been watching for that, cyber-attacks always invited opportunists, the cyber community anti authoritarians loved sticking it to the man. They had noticed the attack and were joining in. "Ok Scott, I'll add it to the list." They disconnected.
She just wished she knew what the hell was going on. She ended the call. Her Aide de Camp turned up with another pot of coffee, she took the half empty bottle from her desk drawer and added a shot to his and her mugs, "Well, I hope you made no plans for the weekend, Colonel". He grinned back at her and started to inform her of progress.
22nd March 2009 Industrial Park L.A. 03.00am.
Travers did a final run through of the plan for the coming day, they'd penetrated the CIA staff database and inserted a new Analysist Identity, they'd then hacked the local contractor and planted an additional drop to the regular run.
He had mapped out the route so many times and double checked Oisin's surprise for the final part of the escape, the diversion was going to be paramount, they needed to give Chuck time to make it. He sat back on the bed in his RV, outside the Industrial unit it was quiet.
As he ran things one more time through his head, the final words of Oisin Murphy from their last online meeting rang in his ears, "… we're in control of just about everything we can be, the only thing that can blow this now is human interaction, somewhere along the line, we're going to make a mistake, leave something for them to find, let's hope it's nothing big." He lay back and closed his eyes, not long to go now.
22nd March 2009 Casa Bartowski. 07.30am.
Chuck turned for the final time in his bed and eyed the alarm clock, above it the blue eyes of Sarah Walker gazed back at him from their Hallowe'en picture. He closed his eyes. He didn't need her recriminations this morning. He got up, the apartment was quiet, Elle and Devon had already left for the hospital and a part of him was glad. He showered and dressed, checking he'd put his passport in his satchel, he sat silently eating his breakfast. He could feel the sadness well up, his eyes watered as they lingered on family pictures, he knew he wasn't going to see again.
There was a shadow he suddenly noticed passing by the courtyard window, he rose and peeked out, a man with a military bearing walked to Casey's door and knocked, after a few moments the door cracked a few inches and there was an exchange of greetings, whatever he heard in reply must have satisfied him as Casey opened his door and signed for a large envelope, the other man stiffened slightly and nodded and departed.
"Get over here moron!" Chuck smiled; he should have known the other man would catch him eavesdropping. They were carpooling this morning. He grabbed his jacket and as he took his keys a whim took him, and he raced back to his room where he snatched a strip of passport pictures of him and Sarah from a cover date at the pier. He looked at them fondly before he folded them into his passport.
He stepped into Casey's apartment to find the agent reading the documents he had just received, Casey grunted in surprise as he read the last page.
"Anything important?" asked Chuck.
The older man glared at him over the sheaf of documents, "Orders moron, orders, appears the whole of the country is under some kind of Cyber-attack, Beckman wants us to lay low, whoever the hell it is has managed to get into systems they shouldn't have and she'd taking no chances, we're on lockdown until she decides otherwise."
Chuck's blood ran cold. "Lock down?". Casey sneered as he saw the shocked looking face of Bartowski. "Don't get your shorts in a twist, we carry on with the cover as usual. That's all she means."
"No intel for me to flash on?". Casey was about to answer when he remembered the White folder. "Actually…." He never finished his sentence, suddenly Chuck's mobile went off, he looked at the screen, Morgan he mouthed and answered. "Hey Morg, forget something last night?".
"Yeah, to stay in your place and call in sick!", snarked his best friend. "Chuck it's mayhem in here, apparently there's some kind of Cyber-attack, some of our corporate clients have been screaming for assistance since we walked in, it's so bad that even Jeff and Lester are on call out!".
"You're serious?" asked an incredulous Chuck, Casey had stepped closer so he could hear the call.
"Yep, so you can scratch the cage today, Big Mike had to give up his fishing day and he is pissed, Milbarge convinced him to get you out there and well, here we are, you got a pen handy?" Chuck looked down, Casey had a pen and notepad already pushed into his hands.
Chuck rested the mobile on his shoulder as Morgan rattled out a company address. "You got some service logs in the car Chuck?" He pretended to think for a moment as Casey watched him, he'd already prepared some the evening before. "Yep. I think there's a couple in the glove box."
"Ok", replied his friend, "Keep your mobile charged the list is getting bigger! I'll update you as you go." In the background Chuck and Casey could hear Big Mike shouting something about doughnuts and then the mobile cut out.
The two men eyed each other. "Guess my day is starting early, he he….". The other man glared at him. "You don't budge until I can get you some cover!". He threw a glance at Chuck's wrist and seeing the GPS tracker watch grunted in approval.
He walked past Chuck, through the courtyard and onto the street outside the apartment complex, he looked around, there, in a non-descript G-car was Agent Billings. He motioned the man over, "Alright, the moron is on call out, I'll going to Castle, stick to him like glue, understood?"
"Yes Sir! Are we using the walkies for communication Sir?"
"Yes, Alpha frequency, anything out of the ordinary, call it in, I'll get Hawkins or Davis to relieve you by lunch, ok?". Billings nodded, seeing Chuck exit the complex and head to the Herd mobile, he jumped back in his car and pulled out after the lanky nerd as he passed by. Casey watched them go. He didn't like it, but it was the geek's job.
Halfway down the next street Mike Travers pulled out too and headed after the other two cars, he was in a van tricked out a painter decorator, it was brash and obvious, but he didn't mind, no traffic cameras or any municipal street surveillance systems were working in a three-mile radius around him and hadn't since he arrived in L.A. He was invisible for all intents and purposes.
A few hours later….
Chuck had just finished up another call, he returned to his car to find a small, padded envelope sitting on the passenger seat. He looked around the area using his mirrors but there was no one to be seen. Suddenly it started ringing, he quickly tore it open, he kept it low as he could see Ted Billings watching him just as he had the entire time it took Chuck to return to his car. He whistled as the ringing phone turned out to be a sat phone, an Iridium, about 1500 bucks' worth. He answered. "Hello?"
"Hello Chuck". It was Mike! "Next stop Chuck, when you get there, park in the ground floor car park near the emergency exit marked J, but use the main entry on the street for access, after the fix, pretend you forgot something in your car and head out through the downstairs exit, cut across the park and into the alley between that building and the next, it's a multistorey, I'll be in the stairwell marked 5 at the far side, it's a straight line from one spot to the other. There's a 4-digit code on the door, it's 5381. Good luck!" He hung up.
It was finally here, Chuck checked his mobile phone for the next customer, 4Sight Software Inc, a small flash hit, it was a small company developing cutting edge radar applications for Naval ships, they were in a right flap, their latest upgrade was stuck in their server unable to upload due to a DDoS attack. The word was spreading in the DOD subcontractor circle embedded in LA that a local Buy More technician was having some success dealing with the situation, they needed a fix fast! Their deadline was tomorrow, and they hadn't even started their test installation for the simulations they planned to run. By the time Chuck turned up, they were ready to sell their souls for a solution.
Ted Demings Ops Manager personally escorted him to the main server room, it took him ten minutes to actually do the work, it was easy when your friends had already stopped their attacks. He spent a further 5 minutes pretending to do work, when he said he needed to go to his car, the security guard who had sat near him made to join him.
"You know I actually parked on the ground floor carpark, is there a quicker way there, I just need a small part that's in my car". The guard thought for a second. Chuck willed him to make the right choice. "Did you see the letter of the emergency exit you parked near?" he asked.
Chuck nodded, "J".
The guard smiled, "Cool, if you take a left exiting this room, you'll see an escalator to the ground floor and behind that is the one that leads to the parking area, follow the signage and you'll come to the exit, just hit the buzzer and they'll let you through, ok?" Chuck gave a thumbs up and headed for the door, behind him on the table lay his tracker watch. The guard got on the internal intercom and informed his team.
Keeping an eye on Billings parked across the street he quickly took advantage of a passing lorry to walk quickly to the ground floor escalator, the guard directions were spot on, and he quickly passed through the emergency exit. Throwing his keys and mobile in the open front window he quickly grabbed his satchel with his laptop from under the passenger seat and darted across the carpark. He threw his leg over the wall, for a second, he paused, his forehead was damp, pulse racing, he checked the alley both ways and dropped to the ground, he hissed as the edge of the wall scraped his butt, he wiped the concrete dust off and then he crossed the alley fast, throwing his legs over the carpark wall on the multistorey.
Trying to act like he belonged there, he walked as nonchalantly as he could until he spotted stairwell door 5, he walked quicker. His keyed the code and the door clicked open, he pulled the door the rest of the way and entered, shutting it behind him before he realised it was pitch dark! His hands went automatically up, and he blinked rapidly trying to see anything, his breathing sounded harsh and raspy in the darkness. There was a movement and suddenly he was grabbed. "Aaah…!" A hand clasped over his mouth….
22nd March 2009 Server Room, 20 minutes later…
The security guard, Ricardo Sempler, glanced at his watch again and stood up, he tapped an internal intercom, "Say you guys haven't seen that Buy More Tech guy?", he asked. There was a pause before one of his colleagues answered, "Thought he was with you?". Ricardo didn't like that reply. "Yeah, he went to his car about 20, can you see him on the system? Might be on a call, parked up by J".
"Sorry man, system is still out, I'll take a look." Typical, thought Sempler, cheapskate system for a multimillion-dollar company, he wasn't fooled, he'd seen the exec's cars.
Another 5 minutes crawled by, he was about to hit the intercom when Demings and Alan Sipress entered the room, Sipress the IT manager went straight to the main terminal. He gave a cry of surprise, "Hey, it's fixed!" He sat down and started typing. Demings gave a sigh of relief, turning to Sempler he asked, "Where's the Tech guy?". Sempler shrugged, "He went to his car about 20, hasn't returned". Demings gathered up Chuck's stuff and handed it to Sempler. "Well, he did his job, when he comes back, sign whatever he wants and tell him thanks!". He shooed Ricardo from the room.
Just then his colleague turned up, "Guy's gone! Checked the restrooms on the ground floor too, remember him going out but nobody remembers him coming back." The two guards walked back to the main lobby desk. "Guys", came a shout from inside the security room behind the desk, "systems are back up!". They walked in. "Get me a view of J." Ricardo asked. His seated colleague obliged. The Nerd Herd car was there but no Chuck. They quickly scanned the perimeter. Nothing. There was a clamour behind them, they looked out. A big cop looking guy waving a badge of some sort was knocking on the main door. Glancing at each other, they walked over.
"Yes?"
"My name is Reston FBI, I'm looking for a Tech guy that entered here about 45 minutes ago, have you seen him? Tall, dark curly hair a bit on the lanky side?"
"So are we, Agent Reston, so are we. He's disappeared. Got his stuff though…." Sempler watched stunned as the man raced away with shock on his face.
Billings grabbed his walkie from the car, "Eagle 5 to Nest, Eagle 5 to Nest!" John Casey's voice came over the air, "Nest here, what's the moron done now?". Billings gulped, "He's gone Sir, He's gone!".
Ten minutes later Casey's Crown Vic came thundering down the road towards him, a couple of non-descript G cars followed in his wake. The Vic slid to a halt and John Casey was out of the car in an instant striding towards him, "Report!" Casey barked as they walked towards the entrance of the building.
Inside, Sempler and his colleagues watched on the monitors, "Better answer the door Ric, that guy looks like he might knock it down!"
Outside Casey, directed his men, "Check the carpark, my car sensor shows the Nerd mobile is still in there." Two agents sprinted to the carpark entrance.
The door to the building opened, Casey saw a couple of mall cop types staring back. "Harris, FBI!" he waved a badge. "Where's the man that entered here about an hour ago?" Sempler tried to keep up as the big man pushed through by him and headed towards the security desk.
"Sir, car's here, no sign of Chuck, orders?" burst from Casey's walkie. He stopped briefly. "Hold position, I'll be there shortly!".
Sempler finally found his voice," Look sir, I've no idea where that guy is, he came in, fixed the system, said he was going to his car for a part and never returned, look, we even have his bag here…" He pulled Chuck's tech bag out from behind the desk, apart from Chuck's GPS watch it was empty. Casey grabbed it. "Surveillance tapes?"
Sempler sighed, he had a feeling the guy wasn't going to like the answer, "Well … they were out all morning and only just came back on…." A horrible realisation hit Sempler. "…after he left…"
Shit! Thought Casey, the penny dropped, moron's done a runner!
He sprinted to the Nerd mobile, he didn't even ask if his men had touched anything, he knew they hadn't. He scanned the ground, no signs of a struggle confirming his idea... Dammit! Bartowski was getting help!
Shaeffer turned up, Casey called him over, "Communications are still out, we need backup!", The why of what Bartowski had done would have to wait, catching him was now the task. He thought furiously, his FBI badge flopped in his hand, he grinned.
"Shaeffer!", The agent ran to Casey's side. "Get to the local FBI Field office, contact the SAIC and conscript as many goddamn fibbies as you can, you have permission to use the file marked Fugitive-1, tell them it's a National Security Emergency! Get them to cover as many exit routes as they can, remember, take the moron alive! I'll deal with him personally later…" His voice dripped venom. Shaeffer nodded and took off.
He looked at his men and barked, "Somebody get me a connection to General Beckman pronto, the shits about to hit the fan!". He threw the GPS watch at the ground in a fury.
An hour earlier….
Chuck shook with fright until Traver's voice sounded in his ear. "Relax Chuck!" A small light clicked on, there stood Mike Travers in a paint splattered coverall, "here", he said, handing Chuck a set, "Change, everything including your socks and shorts."
Travers turned as Chuck stripped. "Throw them in this", he held up a Faraday bag. "Is that necessary, Mike?" asked Chuck.
Mike produced and waved a portable scanner over Chuck's uniform, it squealed loudly. Travers smiled, "Your handlers have been very thorough Chuck", he answered. For Chuck, it was another betrayal. "Micro bugs woven into the fabric. Top of the line bugging." Chuck felt the anger wash over him. The decision to leave was starting to look better all the time.
Mike opened a small tin of paint and smeared some on Chuck's face, and arms. He wiped the excess with a cloth, then taking the Faraday bag he tossed it down a stairwell. "Grab those buckets and stepladder and follow me!". Chuck looked and saw them, he grabbed them. Mike opened the door and sticking a wet paint sign up, motioned Chuck to follow him to his van. They loaded quickly.
"In the back Chuck", opening a side door, Chuck saw there was a jump seat inside and he strapped in. Mike jumped in the front and the engine started, they headed to a far exit and entered traffic.
In a few blocks, they entered a public carpark. Getting out, Chuck had donned a tracksuit, at Mike's request. Mike peeled off his coverall revealing one too, he clicked a small device in his hand as he closed the van, they walked a few steps and Chuck heard a whomping sound. He looked back curiously. "Bleach bomb." Chuck's eyebrows raised, they were taking no chances, any DNA evidence was now moot.
They walked to a small RV. "Wash as much of that paint off as possible Chuck, don't want to scare my friend Maria!". Chuck had a puzzled look on his face but went to the small sink.
West Hollywood 1.00pm
Maria Espinosa sat nervously by a traffic junction in Melrose. It wasn't that far from her apartment in Encino, but the Voice had told her last evening to wait there. She had her work stuff with her, but she was puzzled as to why. She was nervous, she was a beautiful young Mexican woman and heads turned as she waited, she didn't like the attention.
She always knew this day would come, the payback for her and her brother Diego escaping the clutches of a Mexican drug cartel two years ago, her brother had been a promising boxer, he had a fight with the wrong guy and beat him. Most would have taken that and moved on, but then most people didn't react to a beating by spraying the victor's house with submachine gunfire. Their parents were thankfully deceased, the police were useless though, corrupt, things had looked grim, but her uncle knew a man, who knew a man, who…
They were in the US within a week, the man who helped them gave them an envelope with 5000 dollars and an address where they had their first night's sleep after a fortnight of terror. She never really saw his face but his Voice she'd never forget, he said one day, he'd need a favour. That was the only condition, but she was not naïve, she was beautiful.
When the call came last evening at her business, she'd frozen, she listened as the Voice reminded her of her promise, with a sick stomach she wrote down the time and place of the meeting and hung up. She told Diego nothing, it was her promise, her problem.
Suddenly she heard her name called, it was him! She looked up and saw an old RV with an open door stopped beside her, gathering her courage and her bag she walked quickly over and entered. There was a sudden jolt as they took off, she swayed precariously. A large hand covered her own and she turned to see a young man with friendly brown eyes watching her. She sat down on the far side of a table from him.
In a few moments they had pulled into another public carpark beside a small green area. She closed her eyes and steeled herself for the ordeal ahead, she hoped she had dressed correctly for their "amusement". She stood and slipped off her jacket, she had been well gifted by the Gods, she had a full figure, with her golden skin, long black hair and model looks, the young man gasped in surprise. Her head low with shame she reached for the zipper at the back of her brassiere…
"What the hell?" came the Voice from behind her, she twirled, her arms going defensively across her chest. Mike Travers laughed, instantly guessing what was going on. Before Maria could get embarrassed or angry, he placed his hands on her shoulders and tilted her head up to look him in the face. "Oh no Maria, my friend here is in a bit of trouble, just like you once were, so I need your help!"
She searched his face, the first time she'd ever seen it, for any duplicity. Mike smiled. "Now, my friend here needs a fast haircut, like an executive, but it needs to be a little 'off', not perfect. Can you help us out?" Maria looked at them both, the first genuine smile of the day broke out across her face. "Yes!" she said delightedly.
Twenty minutes later, they admired her work. Chuck looked at himself in a mirror Maria handed to him. His curls were gone, and he had a new tight tidy head of hair. She made to put some product in, but Mike stopped her, "Not perfect", he reminded her.
She packed away her hairdressing equipment and he led her to the door of the RV. "Thanks Maria, I have one more favour to ask of you". She looked at him.
"Anything." This time she meant it. These were good people. Mike nodded in appreciation. "I need some help to watch over his people, your two cousins Javier and Eduardo are 'coming over'." She knew exactly what he meant. She had missed her family and had been worried about her cousins. They had been in trouble with the cartel heavies looking for her and Diego. Her uncle had been worried. She started to thank him as tears of gratitude filled her eyes. He waved her gratitude off.
"I will contact you at your apartment, ok?" She nodded and he handed her an envelope. She hugged him. "I owe you so much".
"Nonsense, you just needed a helping hand, we all do from time to time." She stepped out, "You can find your way home Maria?" He asked. She smiled and nodded. "Vaya con Dios". The door closed and the RV took off again, they waved to each other as he passed and then they were gone, him and his mysterious friend with the friendly eyes. She absently opened the envelope and froze! It was crammed full of 100-dollar bills. She prayed that the stranger would make it, she knew he was in good hands though, the Voice had never failed her.
Chuck looked at Mike, "That was a nice thing you did." Mike had told him Maria's story. Mike looked at him, "I started out in the US Immigration Department after college, young and very idealistic, thought I was going to do great things, help the underprivileged into this great country, know what I found?" Chuck shook his head, although he knew most of Mike's work past, courtesy of the Intersect, he didn't know the context. "It's a Las Vegas casino, Chuck, where the odds are always stacked against the little people. Pretty soon I realised the people that needed our help the most, were less favoured than those who had money, or who had forwarded US interests in ways the average American would have been disgusted with, all for the "Greater Good"". Chuck shook his head at those words, remembering how many times he had heard Graham or Beckman justify some vile or unethical act using them.
"I did my best to beat the system Chuck", continued Mike, "until one day I was 'invited' to leave, wrong guy for that type of work apparently, so I did, but I had learned a lot and so I decided to work for myself, and with some friends really help people. We became paper-men, Fenix was our main man in South America, and we helped as many as we could, if you were rich you paid, we didn't rip anyone off, and we did a lot of pro bono along the way, like Maria and her brother, that helped salve our guilty consciences for when we had to help a bad one, but there was a need behind that, contacts, whatnot, and we never helped monsters". He looked sad. "Unfortunately, touching darkness may have been our Achilles heel."
"How so?" asked Chuck. "I'm guessing," replied Travers," but that may have put us on the radar." Chuck remembered Castor and Pollux. He nodded. "Tell me about it". Thinking about Bryce Larkin.
They turned into an industrial estate, there was an old unit whose automatic warehouse door started raising as they approached it. They entered and Mike pulled up, stopping.
He turned to Chuck. "Now my friend, we say goodbye to Chuck Bartowski..."