A/N: Again, with the ownership of Chuck? Nothing else to begin with to start the chapter? Same intro topic every time? No imagination, that's my problem.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Crown Vic parked in front of the Orange Orange frozen yogurt shop in the strip mall located across the street from Castle Studios. The car had paint scrapes and marks on the windshield from the garage gunfight, but no other damage. It helped to be almost entirely bulletproof.

The Orange Orange had closed for the evening hours earlier and sat still and dark. Chuck took out his keys and used one to open the door. Stepping into the empty store he turned to the keypad next to the door and entered a particular code which would switch the store's alarm off for a few minutes.

Casey, Sarah, Amy and Cole Barker came into the store behind him. Sarah had a penlight glowing in front of her to show the way through the darkened space. Chuck closed and locked the door behind them and then followed them into the back of the store. Sarah opened the freezer and moved to the back of the huge walk-in appliance. With the push of a concealed button, a metal panel slid down to reveal a palmprint scanner. Sarah placed her hand on the cold glass. A moment later a section of the freezer wall, complete with an integral storage rack, opened. Sarah slid the metal panel back up to conceal the scanner once again. With the opening of the door a light went on behind it.

Casey grabbed the storage rack to use as a handle and opened the wall wide. Chuck closed the door to the freezer. One by one, they filed through the door at the back of the freezer. Chuck was the last one through and he turned off the light in the freezer and closed the hidden door behind him. It locked automatically with a dull thud.

A few feet in front of them was a metal staircase. They descended more than thirty feet, about double the length of a normal staircase. At the bottom was another locked door which Sarah opened with a keycode on the pad beside the door. That door opened to a long corridor.

The team walked down the corridor to the main room, motion-sensor controlled lights activating as they advanced. They spread out, dropping their gear, and sat in chairs around the conference table.

"Ok, Mr. Barker," said Sarah, neutrally, "tell us."

"I'm an MI-6 agent and your bloody team has just blown an eighteen month long undercover operation," said Barker with obvious annoyance.

"Stow the attitude, Barker," growled Casey.

"You are an allied agent and were operating undercover on American soil. I really don't think we owe you an apology. There are understandings between our countries. Arrangements so that exactly this sort of thing doesn't happen. You...as you very well know...are supposed to notify us of your operation, for chrisakes. Casey is right. Your shitty attitude is misplaced. Consider that you owe us the apology rather than the other way around," said Sarah. She didn't raise her voice, but she was obviously pissed off.

"Fulcrum. If my operation is to infiltrate a rogue arm of your own intelligence services, exactly who do you expect me to notify? How is that going to work? How long will I survive?"

"I'll tell you exactly what you do, Barker," said Sarah, her anger rising. "You have Sir Trevor call Director Graham and explain the situation. That's what you do."

Chuck looked at Amy, who was sitting closest to him and raised an eyebrow. She whispered, "Sir Trevor Broadchurch. He's C." When Chuck again looked confused, she went on, "Head of MI-6. They always call him or her 'C.'"

"Ah," said Chuck, quietly.

Sarah continued, "You don't come in here and operate without letting us know. That's exactly the way people die from friendly fire. We have been tangling with Fulcrum for months now. If Graham had known, we could have coordinated with you before you ever arrived here. We could have avoided this entire clusterfuck tonight." The cleaners they had sent had informed them that there were no survivors among the Fulcrum operatives, which meant no one left alive to interrogate.

Casey picked it up, "I'll tell you one thing, Barker. When Graham finds out, he's gonna rip your boss a new one."

"You might be surprised. My boss can take care of himself. Tell me, though. I'm curious how you and your team got wind of me coming to town. Why you set up an op to get me."

Sarah said, "None of your business, Barker."

Chuck said, "Ok, guys. We can sit here yelling at each other all night or we can figure out what to do next. I hope to go to bed sometime tonight, so maybe we can get to the second part of the evening. Tell us what your operation was, Barker."

"We've known there was something wrong with your services for almost two years," Barker said. Casey growled and Barker held up his hands palm forward in a placating gesture. "Look, no aspersions implied. Christ knows we've had our own share of problems over the years. It's part of the game. But this one was different. The rumors we were hearing were very frightening. Without knowing who to trust on this side, we started looking into it on our own. I went undercover as Kaplan, an intel middleman. I've been running that identity for about eighteen months now."

Sarah said, "Dammit. You tumbled to Fulcrum before we did ourselves. We've only been on it about six months."

Barker shrugged, "Sometimes it's easier for an outsider. Anyway, I did some transactions with Fulcrum. This one was to be the largest one yet. Eight hundred thousand dollars. I was to sell them..."

Chuck reached into his jacket pocket and dropped the computer chip onto the table.

"...that," said Barker, with a gesture to the chip.

"What is it?" asked Sarah.

"It's a computer chip of some kind, but with a unique configuration," said Chuck.

"It's a special set up Fulcrum created so it can't be read if intercepted. Fulcrum has the reader. Without the reader it's impossible to read the chip."

"Really?" asked Chuck. He stood up and took off his jacket to drop it on the back of the chair he'd been sitting on. Then he walked over to his electronics bench along a wall about ten feet or so from the others. He sat down on a high stool, his back to them, and turned on a bright light on a flexible mounting moving it to the center of the bench. He took the chip from its plastic case and dropped it in front of a large magnifying glass on a small pedestal.

"Forget it, Chuck. We showed that thing to the boffins at Vauxhall Cross. Without the reader there's nothing they could do."

"No kidding?" said Chuck, continuing to study the chip. "So, you don't know what's on it? Just that Fulcrum wants it?"

"That's right."

"Where did you get it, Barker?" asked Casey.

"I took it off a Fulcrum agent I killed in New Delhi. Used to be CIA, but left a few years ago. I think he had stolen it from somewhere. I brought it back to London and when we had no luck there, we thought to sell it to Fulcrum. If the buyer comes with the reader, I can get to him and steal the reader. That way we can find out what the chip says."

"Or, you lose the chip to Fulcrum when the buyer keeps the reader in his sock drawer rather than bringing it with him to the meeting with you," said Amy.

"A risk," admitted Barker, with a shrug.

"Why LA?" asked Sarah.

"Don't know. It's where the cut-out told me to be for the exchange," said Barker.

Chuck started to laugh without turning around. "Well, Barker, I think you ought to be happy that your tech guys couldn't power this sucker up." He pulled a small vice over to him and clamped it to the bench. He put the chip into the vice and tightened it securely.

"Why, Chuck?" asked Barker.

"Because the moment it would be powered up it would trigger a tracking device. There's a small radio embedded..." Chuck did something to the chip. "Ok, there was a small radio embedded in the chip. It's not going to work now."

"Wait," said Barker, looking at Chuck's back with a confused expression. "You saw that just by looking at it?"

Casey, Sarah and Amy exchanged smirks. Yup, they were thinking. That's our Chuck.

"Well, yeah. Say, listen. The boffins you had check this out...cool word, that, by the way...boffins. The ones who told you it couldn't be read...they were computer guys, right?'

"Yes," replied Barker.

"Yeah. That's what I thought. You should have shown it to some electrical engineers instead. This isn't a computer problem. It's an engineering problem, Agent Barker." Chuck bent over the bench and began to work on the chip. After a few moments he said, waving his hand in the air, "Keep talking, guys. I can do this and listen at the same time." He reached up and turned on an air filter exhaust system located above the bench and wrapped a band around his wrist connected to the bench at the other end by a coiled stretchy cord, closing the band around his wrist with velcro.

"Have you dealt with this particular Fulcrum contact before?" asked Sarah.

"No," said Barker.

"Why did they have you under surveillance at the hotel?" asked Casey.

"I don't know. I presume to keep an eye on me before tomorrow's meet. Check me out. Make sure I am who I say I am. That sort of thing," he replied.

"And they interfered when it looked like you were being taken into custody," said Amy. "It was a rescue attempt. One of the men in the corridor said to keep you alive and kill the rest of us."

"Before you killed them?" said Barker.

"Well, certainly not after I killed them, Agent Barker," she said, giving him a look.

"Why did you break cover in the garage? Why not go along with the rescue attempt?" asked Sarah.

"Two of your team were pinned down. I wasn't going to let Fulcrum kill you."

"I for one am glad you did, Barker," said Chuck, without turning around.

"But with no survivors, there's no way to get the reader now," said Barker.

"How about we not focus on the reader for the time being?" asked Chuck. He seemed to be working on the chip with a soldering iron. "Why don't you tell us about Perseus?"

Startled, Barker said, "Perseus? What do you know about Perseus?"

Chuck twisted around from the bench to face Barker and said, "Oh, come on."

Barker said, "Right, right, sorry. I don't know that much about him, or her, I guess. Fulcrum is protecting Perseus. He's the head scientist behind their efforts to build something called the Intersect."

Team B looked around at each other in shock. Barker caught the look and said, "Oh, I see you know about the Intersect."

Sarah said, giving him a flat expression, "Yes. We've heard about it. What do you know?"

"It was a joint British-American project, but my side bailed out about twenty years ago for some reason. You guys seem to have kept at it, at least Fulcrum thinks you have. Sounds like crazy sci-fi to me, but it involves implanting information through subliminal encoding of images. I don't understand it, even in theory, but if it really works it creates people with access to a tremendous volume of information at their fingertips. For whatever reason, Fulcrum seems to be obsessed with it."

"And you think Fulcrum is building their own version?" asked Chuck.

"That's what we understand. And Perseus, whoever that is, is the scientist in charge," said Barker.

"Does that have anything to do with this chip?" asked Chuck.

"It might. We don't know. Mostly, we looked at this as an opportunity to deepen my contacts within Fulcrum. Come across as more reliable. We'd love to see a shopping list of the intel they are looking for. If they are willing to ask Kaplan for it, terrific."

"Can you tell us anything else about Perseus? Where is he based? Nationality? Training? Anything?"

"No," he replied.

"Ok," said Sarah. "Let's get back to the drop you were supposed to handle tomorrow. Time and place?"

Chuck turned back to the chip he was working on.

"Tomorrow, late afternoon. At the plaza in front of the Brewster Building. 5:30," he said.

Casey growled. "Downtown, right in the middle of quitting time. The plaza would be packed. Be impossible to isolate them. Major road network right there. Smart choice."

"What's the contact signal?" asked Sarah.

"I'm to be wearing a pink tie and drinking a cup of coffee," he said.

Still facing away from them Chuck gave a short bark of a laugh. "A tie in Los Angeles? You'd stand out for sure."

"What's your contact's signal?" asked Sarah.

"None. They said they'd find me."

"Were you to bring the chip to the meet?"

"Yes."

"Payment?"

"Off-shore account in BVI."

"Speaking of the chip," Chuck switched off the air filter and turned from the bench. He gestured to the big monitor to the side of the conference area. "Here's the intel."

"Holy shit," breathed Barker. "You did it." He looked at Chuck with amazement and a little awe.

Sarah said, without even bothering to keep the proud smirk off her face, "Of course, he did it, Barker. He's Chuck."

Barker continued to stare at Chuck and finally said, "Damn. I should have seen it before this. I'm an idiot. You're the bloke they call Carmichael." He looked at the others. "This is the Carmichael team." Amy nodded, with a proud smile. "Well, that's just bloody brilliant. I'm in first class company then."

"Earn it, Moron," said Casey. Chuck smiled at that, a little bit, while Sarah gave a quiet snort of laughter.

By this time, Barker had been watching long enough to understand Casey and just smiled at him.

Barker looked to Chuck and said, "How did you do it? If you can explain it so even a moron like me can understand?"

"It wasn't configured so that the connections would fit any standard computer set up. All I did was rewire the connections the old-fashioned way, with wires and solder. Took a bit, but here we are."

The screen of the monitor showed them circuit diagrams. Chuck began to study them, but they were meaningless to the others. He flipped past a few and stopped to study some others, mumbling to himself. He blew up the image a bit and focused on written words on the lower left. INTERSECT BAFFLE DESIGN – ELEMENT BRAVO – PAGE 2 OF 9. Under that was a date: 9/17/07.

Casey growled.

"Oh, shit," said Chuck. "These are schematics for the Intersect. Someone leaked them to Fulcrum."

"Zarnow?" suggested Sarah.

"Maybe, but if so they've taken a roundabout route to get to their destination. He was dead just a few weeks after these were prepared," responded Chuck. "We're six months later now."

"So, there's another mole in the project," said Sarah.

"Probably. Shit, we'll have to let Graham and Beckman know asap," said Casey.

"Yeah. They won't be shocked. Think about the inside work for the Colt strike on the facility a week or so ago," said Sarah.

Casey nodded.

"Look," said Barker, "it's more important than ever that we get some of these people and get them to talk. I'll go through with the handoff for the chip tomorrow..." He glanced at his watch. "...today."

"They'll know something happened at the hotel where all their guys watching you got dead," said Sarah. "They'll be on high alert."

"Yeah, the shooting, so I tell them I ran like hell. Got out of there and spent the night with...I don't know...a woman I picked up. Maybe at a knocking shop..."

"What's that?" asked Chuck.

"A brothel,...doesn't matter. I fled the hotel and hid until the meeting," said Barker.

"Ok. Still a risk, though," said Sarah, looking at Casey.

Casey said, "Yeah, but our best bet to nail some Fulcrum guys to talk to. Maybe find this Perseus guy and shut down their Intersect project."

Sarah looked at Amy and Chuck. Amy shrugged but nodded. Chuck said, "It's up to him. It's his ass on the line."

"Superb. Let's do it then," said Barker. "I can handle myself. I've taken risks before."

Team B looked around among themselves and reached an unspoken agreement.

"Alright," said Sarah. "We'll do it. Chuck, can you put that chip back together but erase the intel? Wipe it clean?"

"Sure, but it will take a couple of hours. It's easier to apply solder than it is to remove it."

"Don't bother, kid. He won't be handing anything over to Fulcrum no matter what happens at the exchange," said Casey.

"Casey's right, Chuck. When those Fulcrum men show up, we take them. It's going to be nice and easy," said Barker.

"Alright." Sarah said. "Settled. We'll be there to cover you. The point of your going there is to take the Fulcrum people. We no longer need to worry about the reader for the chip..."

"Thanks to Chuck," said Barker.

"So, we see who you meet and nail them. Amy, Casey and I will be watching with Chuck coordinating."

"Alright, let's get some sleep. We can do the rest of the planning tomorrow," said Chuck. "You're welcome to crash here. There are guest quarters," Chuck used air quotes. "You can be our first guest."

Casey said, "One of us should stay with him." He looked at Barker. "No offense, Barker."

"None taken," said Barker.

Without missing a beat, Amy said, casually, "I can do that. You guys head home and get some rest."

Sarah gave Amy a look, to which Amy's response was merely a small smile. But her eyes were twinkling with...something.

The group broke up to prepare to leave for the night. Barker approached Casey and said quietly, "Listen, mate, can I ask you something?"

Casey grunted affirmatively.

"Amy, is she seeing anyone? You know, seriously? Spoken for, as it were?"

"No. Why?"

"Because she's hot. So, if no one else on your team would mind..." He got a bit of a saucy smile. "I think I'm going to try to butter that muffin."

"Go for it, Barker. None of my business. Just don't make a big deal about it. I get enough of that with the other two, always mooning at each other with lovey eyes. I hate it."

Barker grinned and gave Casey a light rap on the shoulder.

Casey, Chuck and Sarah left Castle the way they had entered.

Cole found Amy checking his bedroom, making sure it was serviceable. It was a simple room with an attached bathroom and shower. It would have fit in perfectly with the rooms found in any cheap motel, with the exception of a lack of windows. He stood watching her, leaning on the edge of the doorway.

"Seems we're both on the side of the angels," he said.

"Don't take this the wrong way, Agent Barker, but you don't seem like much of an angel to me." She gave him a saucy smile, her blue eyes glittering.

"Oh, I'm not. Not even a little bit. Tell me, your pickup line about getting turned on by danger, was that the truth or just fiction to get to my hotel room?"

"Why is that important to you?" she asked, still smiling at him. She sat down on the edge of his bed.

"Sometimes, even in a cover situation, I find we tend to speak the truth," he said with a matching gleam in his eye.

With an eyebrow raised in skepticism, Amy said, "You think I'll want to jump your bones because we were in a gunfight earlier tonight?"

"Well, I did recognize it as a longshot..."

"Really? But longshot or not, it is a possibility that occurred to you?"

"I think 'possibility' is too strong a term. 'Hope' might be more fitting," he said.

"And do you still hope so?" She began to unbutton her blouse.

"More and more by the minute," he said, with a wolfish smile she found very sexy.

"Well, I would hate to disappoint you. I was always told to extend hospitality to my guests." She dropped her shirt to the floor.

Cole began to walk to the bed. "Brilliant."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N2: The head of the Secret Intelligence Service (informally known as MI-6) has traditionally been referred to as "C" after Captain Sir Mansfield Smith-Cummings who held the office from 1909 to 1923. When Ian Fleming created James Bond, he modified the real-life facts to call Bond's boss "M" and eventually give him the full name and title of Vice Admiral Sir Miles Messervy. The SIS is headquartered at Vauxhall Cross (pronounced "Vox-hall") along the Thames River in London (hence the nickname, the River House).

A/N3: When soldering electronics, as Chuck was doing to attach leads to the Fulcrum chip, there is a chemical called flux mixed with the soldering metal to be melted. When the flux is subjected to high heat, it vaporizes and gives off a small amount of acrid gas. That was the reason for the air filter. The wrist band was to ground Chuck so he didn't give off any electrostatic shocks that might damage the components of the chip while he was working on it.

A/N4: In canon as Cole is doing his best to seduce Sarah he takes off his towel and walks around Castle naked. I thought about how he might approach seducing Amy here and, I have to admit, I considered something like that. For a moment. But it was so gross and offensive that the thought really only lasted a moment. Talk about sexual harassment in the workplace. Jeez.

A/N5: Please let me know what you think. It's what makes this fun. And head over to the Chuck FF page on Facebook where a lot of us hang out. Finally, there's a vaccine coming. In the event any of you readers are hesitant to take a vaccine, may I ask you to find the Penn and Teller video about vaccines? It's about ten years old and is both hilarious and educational. In the meantime, mask up, socially distance, and wash your hands.