A/N: I remember who owns Chuck. Naw, I really don't.
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Partial Transcript: (09/14/08) Richmond, Virginia (IRS investigation 42-5839; Agent Moss supervising) - Regarding John Bluge
(M) - Not now.
(W) - But...
(M) - I can't talk now. I have a job coming up and I have to leave now.
(W) - It will just take a minute, for God's sake, Jack.
(M) - Look, these twins are bad ass. I cannot be late for their shit. Talk fast, bitch.
(W) - God, you are such an asshole.
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Recording: (09/13/08) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (DEA 776642; Agent Nanto commanding) - Subject Robert Herndon
(M) - I'm going to have the money. It's coming.
(W) - You've said that before.
(M) - I know. But this time I mean it. I've got a great gig down in DC. I'm going to make ...well, a lot. Everything I owe you, plus some. Jimmy will have everything he wants.
(W) - Bob, I hope you're not doing anything crazy. The money is great, but he needs his father. Don't do anything crazy.
(M) - No issue, sweetie. It's going to be to be great. This brother and sister team are hiring a bunch of us. Really professional lot. Just top notch. It's gonna be just fine. I still love you.
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Recording: (09/12/08) Warsaw, Ohio (FBI Columbus Office, Code # 20043; AIC Marper) - Subject Oscar Desantis
Voicemail: Oscar, it's Pete. Listen, I'm going out of town to Pennsylvania tomorrow. Should be away for a couple of weeks. Got a job in DC to take care of. Keep your eyes open, dude. Really gonna take it to the man on this one. You'll be proud that you know me. Real payback for Waco, you know what I mean, buddy? Wish me luck.
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Recording: (09/15/08) Miami, Florida (INS 663269; Miami office; Head of Section) - Target – Mulligan, John.
(JM) - Out of town.
(TM) - Where?
(JM) - None of your business. Just out of town.
(TM) - You can be as rude as you like, you scumbag, but I was asking because I still have your passport in my drawer.
(JM) - Oh, yeah. Never mind about that. I won't need it. This is a domestic job.
(TM) - Domestic? What the fuck, Johnny? You don't work domestically. Africa. South America maybe. But not domestic. What the fuck?
(JM) - Good money this time. Really good. Couple of weeks work and I'm set for the rest of my life. You too, if you want it.
(TM) - I don't want it if it means still being married to you. But I don't want you to get hurt either. Don't do anything stupid.
(JM) - Not me. I got it all figured out.
(TM) - Yeah, right.
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FBI Headquarters
Chuck picked up Deng early the next morning and drove him to FBI headquarters. Deng waved off Chuck's courtesy in having him avoid the metal detector in the entrance. With a smile to Chuck he said that he never goes armed in the United States. Other countries, sure, but it's not worth the risk of a diplomatic blow-up here.
On their assigned floor, Chuck introduced him to Casey, Bryce and Zondra and the FBI agent Tony Mulia. Jenny Statler had arranged for them to have cubicles next to Tony and the others on the operation to find the Yama Twins and thwart whatever plans they might have.
If anyone thought it unusual to have a Chinese spy sitting among them, no one mentioned it. Perhaps they just thought that the Carmichael team did things differently.
Chuck got their morning started with a recap of what little they knew about the Twins. He was barely finished when Jenny came in with a few pieces of paper.
Handing them to Chuck, she said, "Hot off the printer. Transcript of a call recorded by the IRS of all people. Listening in on a gunrunner and mercenary named Bluge. He mentions a job for the twins. Probably nothing, but it can't hurt to look."
"Thanks, Jenny. Do we know why the IRS was looking at the guy?" asked Chuck.
"Money laundering, they tell me," she replied.
"We'll get on it and let you know if we find anything," said Chuck. "Can you ask your lawyers to get me a FISA warrant on the guy, please? I doubt the IRS authorization will extend as far as I want."
"Sure, no worries. We'll get the request submitted asap and request an expedited review."
He took a look at the papers as Jenny went back to her desk. While Casey explained the FISA warrant process (and necessity) to Deng, the remainder of Team B began to look at Bluge and quickly found him to be a far right, anti-government zealot and part-time mercenary. They were looking at the files the IRS had on the man when Jenny came back.
"Chuck, you're not going to believe this, but we got another hit. This time from the DEA. Mentions working for a brother and sister team and making a big score."
Chuck frowned, "And the DEA had this guy under surveillance? Just like Bluge?"
"Yeah. Small timer hanging around the Cali Cartel guys in Pittsburgh. Seems they wanted to get enough to flip him."
"There are Cartel guys in Pittsburgh?" asked Chuck, surprised.
"If there's money to be made there, yeah," said Jenny, with a shrug.
"Ok, I guess. Let's see what we can do. Can you get the lawyers to include this one in the FISA application?"
"Sure," said Jenny.
She was back in a couple of hours with a transcript of an INS recording on an occasional human trafficker from Miami.
"Jenny, I know this is probably a whole collection of dry holes, but the coincidences here are starting to freak me out, to be honest. All these guys being already under investigation and being surveilled," Chuck said.
"That's because your experience is espionage. Mine is law enforcement. No coincidences in espionage. In my world, crazy shit happens every day. Stupid coincidences all the time. We all have our war stories."
"Ok, I guess. We'll let you know if anything comes of it."
Jenny went back to her desk. While they had been looking into the leads, she had been on the phone with different agencies of the government to coordinate the various pieces of the vast machine looking for the assassins. The information she'd been feeding to Team B was the result of her efforts.
Bryce and Tony went down to the FBI cafeteria and brought back sandwiches and soft drinks for the team.
After lunch, Jenny was back with another one. An FBI target got a voicemail message from a man they identified as Peter Marston. He went into the mix.
After the afternoon's work, they briefed each other on the four men they had been investigating. The FISA warrants hadn't been issued yet, so they were limited in their reviews to all the government records and social media histories.
Once the individual briefings were over, they began to discuss the conclusions.
Chuck said, "Ok, guys, what do we think?"
Casey said, "Two of them mentioned the people they are working for. One said 'twins' and the other identified a professional brother and sister team. Otherwise, it's just men expecting a big job with a big payday."
"A big job in DC," said Bryce. "At least for two of them."
"With a stop in Pennsylvania?" asked Tony.
Zondra picked up the discussion, "And these men are all similar. Hardened mercenaries. Violent, skilled and experienced."
"With one more thing in common," said Bryce. "They are all right-wing anti-government types. Waco conspiracy type guys. With a bone to pick with Federal authority. Just the type you'd recruit for a major hit. Sounds to me like the Twins are putting together an army."
Deng, who had been working with them all day and was comfortable enough to participate in the discussion, said, "Four men isn't an army."
"Four that we know about," said Bryce. "There could be a hundred out there that we don't know about."
"To do what?" asked Chuck. "Even an army couldn't get past the secret service protection."
Casey said, "We can't count on that, Chuck. A motivated unit in the right circumstances, with the right equipment and the right leadership can do a hell of a lot of damage."
"Fair enough," agreed Chuck. "OK. So, let's find these guys. Marston said Pennsylvania. A meeting place?"
"A training center," said Casey. "If I was putting a unit together for a special operation, like an assassination, I'd get them in one place to rehearse a bit. Iron out the kinks."
"Not a lot of time," said Deng. "The summit is starting today."
"True," said Casey.
"Big state, though," said Zondra. "How do we find them there?"
"If we get those FISA warrants, I can crack emails and texts and every other digital breadcrumb they might leave," said Chuck.
"In the meantime," said Tony, "there's stuff we can do without the FISA warrants. How about we put their pictures into the algorithm for all the traffic cameras on the east coast?"
"Can you alert the police to look for their cars? License plate numbers and whatnot?" asked Deng.
"Sure," said Tony. "We can put out a BOLO – be on the lookout – for the cars of the four men."
"Just observe and advise. Do not approach," said Zondra. "Don't want to scare them off."
"Ok," said Chuck. "Until we get the warrants this will have to do. I want to remind everyone that this is totally circumstantial so far. All four of these guys might have nothing at all to do with the Yama Twins. I don't want us getting carried away and convicting these guys in our heads before we have more to go on."
"Innocent until proven guilty," said Bryce.
"Yeah, buddy," said Chuck. "But that's not even what I'm worried about. I'm worried that we stop seeing any other leads because we got ourselves married to this theory. Confirmation bias. Everything we look at seems to confirm what we already think. Blinds us to alternatives. It's a common problem of analysis and we've got to pay attention to avoid it."
"Good call, Chuck," said Zondra.
Deng said, nodding, "Wise words."
"OK, Tony, please get the alerts out to the state and local police for the cars. Case, can you get the photos of these guys into the camera algorithms?"
"Yeah, I got it, kid," said Casey.
"Good. Awright, guys, I'm going to brief Jenny."
Chuck walked down the hall on knocked on Jenny's doorframe. She looked up and he said, "Got a minute?"
"Sure. Take a seat."
He closed the door and sat before her.
"First of all, thanks for your hospitality and for the leads you've been giving us all day."
"My pleasure," she said. "You got anything from them?"
"All four of the men we are looking at are hardened mercenaries with right wing anti-government politics. Two of them said they have a big job in DC coming up. One said he was working for twins and another one said a brother and sister team. Two expected a big payday. One said he was heading to Pennsylvania first."
"That's it?" she asked.
"Until the warrants are issued, yeah, pretty much," said Chuck with a sigh. "I'm concerned that it's flimsy."
"I've seen investigations succeed with less to go on in the beginning," said Jenny.
"I guess. I've asked Tony to put a BOLO with state and local police for their cars and we're putting their pictures into the algorithm for the traffic cams. Maybe we can spot them. I don't know. The Colonel thinks they are meeting at some kind of rendezvous, probably in Pennsylvania, to train for the hit on the Presidents."
"Reasonable. You wouldn't try to pull something like that off without rehearsals," she said with a frown.
"Yeah."
"You've got some leads, Chuck. Why do you look so glum?"
"I'm sure you're right. What you said before, though. As little as my experience is, it's not in law enforcement. It's just that this whole search for the Twins is outside my comfort zone. I feel like we are searching for an invisible needle in a moving haystack. And what we've found now, with these men, feels like it might be a needle, but it might also just be pointy bits of hay."
Jenny chuckled, "Yeah. I know that feeling. Hopefully you'll have your warrants in the morning. Will you need me to get you a few computer guys to help you get what you need digitally?"
Chuck gave her a small smile. "Naw. Thanks, but that's something my team and I can handle just fine."
"Inside your comfort zone?"
"Solidly," he replied.
"Good," she said, with a smile of her own.
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White House State Dinner
Wearing attractive dark pants suits and matching Secret Service earpieces, Sarah and Mei-Ling stood near each other on the edge of the crowd as the dignitaries entered the room to mingle before the dinner. Both ladies were watching the crowd closely.
The American President saw Sarah and took President Hu's elbow and escorted him over to the ladies. The translators followed.
"Agent Walker," said Bush. "Just seeing you here has a calming effect." He gave her one of his less serious grins.
"Thank you, Sir." She smiled back at him. Both she and Chuck had thanked him for the help he'd given them with the Molly situation, but this was the first time she'd seen him in person since then and contemplated thanking him again. Doing so in front of Hu and the translators wasn't the best idea, though. "May I present Agent Cho of the Chinese Ministry of State Security?"
"How do you do, Sir?" asked Cho.
"Pleased to meet you. You ladies did a terrific job taking on the White Dragons before. I know you will again."
"Indeed," said Hu, through his translator. "Shutting down those criminals is something we can all agree on. Thanks to you both for working together again to protect my friend George and I. You are a good example to us old men that our countries can work well together for a common purpose."
Bush looked at him with mock offense, "Speak for yourself, I'm not old." Both men laughed.
An aide came over to the Presidents and pulled them away to a VIP requiring their attention.
"Gotta go," said Bush. As the others followed the aide away, Bush tarried and turned back to Sarah and said, quietly, "How's the baby?"
Equally quietly, Sarah replied with a grin, "Great. And growing like crazy."
"Good. Daughters are a joy."
"Thank you, Sir."
He gave her a small smile and hurried off to wherever he was wanted.
Mei-Ling gave Sarah an enquiring look with a single raised eyebrow. Sarah said, "Story for another time."
The ladies went back to watching the fancy crowd.
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A/N2: One of the recordings mentioned Waco. In 1993 the religious cult known as the Branch Davidians defied a Federal government search warrant and an armed standoff/siege ensued. The event ended tragically when the compound caught on fire and 75 Branch Davidians, including 25 children died. Among certain right-wing elements in the United States, it was, for a time, a rallying cry against the Federal government.
A/N3: In 1971 there was a movie called The Anderson Tapes. The typical set up for a fun caper movie. But...all of the guys hired for the heist were, coincidentally, under surveillance by different government agencies before the recruitment. Bummer for them when they tried to pull off the caper.
A/N4: How'd I do?