Chuck and Sarah Ch. 03

"No, Sarah... We wont. We wont call him yet. Call Casey in, lock the doors. If we hand him over to the SUP, they'll take charge of the case, and all leads and traces could be removed from the facility, before we have the opportunity to get in. This one..." Chuck tossed Nikolić like a rag doll. "... wont be the only informer, Volkoff has inside the local law enforcement agencies – Orahovac had told us so himself."

In the meantime, Morgan had waved Casey in, thrown the only other guest out – after making clear, that he hadn't seen anything; that he hasn't been there at all – and had locked the Café. Two steps behind Casey Morgan approached Chuck and Sarah, and slightly confused watched his childhood friend holding a man up a wall with one stretched arm. But even more disturbing were the words, he heard from his best friends lips:

"Casey... How much do you know about "effective" interrogation methods?"

It finally turned out, they didn't need to torture Nikolić, or even interrogate him any harder. Despite his own words, he didn't know anything remarkable about Volkoff or his actions at all. He was only recruited by a middleman to keep an eye on any investigation about Volkoff. Like Chuck had supposed, Nikolić wasn't the only mole, but the traitor couldn't name any other informer. He was only a small fish.

Casey gained knowledge of all of this in only a couple of hours – without any violence, besides threats. Chuck and Casey only played "Bad cop – REALLY bad cop" – with Casey only playing the bad cop, and Chuck apparently enjoying scaring the crap out of his victim until Casey only had to shoot a mean glance to make him talk.

It surely wasn't that bad, Nikolić still was convinced them being cold-blooded industry spies and killers – the later was at least right, regarding Casey.

Chuck and Casey succeeded in scaring Nikolić so much, he started singing like a nightingale. Apparently he hadn't lied about his acquaintance with notorious criminals, because he knew enough about many of them to get them locked behind bars for quite a long time.

Some time later Chuck knocked at Orahovac's door and asked him to come over.

"I really think, you'll be very interested in what we got over here, but stay silent."

When he came within earshot, he heard Nikolić once again repeating all he had stated, and his face distorted with disgust and disdain.

"I always knew, we have a mole, but I never guessed him to be you, Momćilo... I'm really disappointed."

Orahovac entered the room and spat before Nikolić, then turned around.

"What are you going to do with him?"

"Nothing... We can't use him anymore. He can't lead us anywhere."

Chuck's voice was cold and distant

"Can you manage to wait a couple of hours, before you officially announce his arrest?"

Orahovac watched him for a moment without understanding.

"He had worked for Volkoff, but he wasn't the only one. If Volkoff learns about us being here and on his track, all traces could disappear into thin air. With an head start – about six hours – we would have the time to check his facility."

Chuck looked into the man's eyes.

"You know, how important my mission is, and how important it could be to learn as much about Volkoff as possible. This is a good opportunity. He doesn't expect to be attacked here, where everything seems to be calm."

Orahovac didn't look happy at all, but he nodded.

"Ok... You have six hours... From now on... After this, I have to bring him in. Good luck for all of you... And I do expect a good explanation from you, Chuck, I can feed my superiors with."

He dragged Nikolić from his chair, and lead him to his apartment. Before the door fell shut, Orahovac's voice was heard.

"Let's make the best out of this, Momo... I bet, you have a lot to tell me, don't you?"

Chuck took one of the backpacks and started packing parts of the equipment, and soon Casey and Morgan followed his lead. Putting the backpack on the chair, Nikolić was sitting on only minutes ago, he looked around. His look was full with zest for action.

"You've heard him, we have to hurry up."

He started the computer to cover their breaking and entering into Volkoff's facility as a regular security test. Sarah's worried and uncertain look he didn't even realize in his zeal.

After Casey and Morgan already went to the car, Sarah took Chuck's arm and dragged his attention away from the computer.

"Are you sure, you can handle this mission without freaking out?"

Chuck looked into the eyes of his girlfriend. Her face was stern and her look hard and straight.

"We had to interrogate him to see, whether he has information that could be valuable for us. I'm still under control."

Sarah's skeptical look hurt him, because he didn't want the woman he loved to doubt him.

"Sarah... I have no choice."

"You always have a choice, Chuck... No one knows this better than us."

She kissed him and took her backpack.

"I know, how important she is to you, but don't ever forget, how important you are to me... And that she had left you once before without bating an eye."

When he looked after her, he knew her being right – and he knew, he can't stop... He couldn't call off the search.

Ðakovo, a former suburb and now quarter of Belgrade, that ended near the facility, was an interesting mixture of apartment buildings, multi-family houses, single-family houses and farms, that slowly turned into farmland and woods at the peripheries. In such a surrounding a facility like Volkoff's would have seemed like a foreign object, but this area was – not at last due to the infrastructure and the access to the local highways – very attractive to manufacturing trade and forwarding companies.

The facility itself stood in midst a secured area of about one square mile on a slight hill, above and in every direction about half a mile away from any other building.

The facility's area was surrounded by two strong fences, only accessible through two electronically and biometrically secured gates at the east and west side of the fence, and the one big main gate at the north side, that also was the main access.

Between the two fence lines guard dogs patrolled, and the main gate was guarded by two sentry boxes with armed guards.

The team had decided to ignore the main gate and access the area through the western gate – at the one hand, because this gate was closer to the buildings, and on the other hand, because the one building, they were interested in, was right next to the gate.

According to the official blueprints, the facility was a fully certified research facility for agricultural chemistry and system electronics, and the odds to find, what they were searching for, was better in the department for system electronics than in the agricultural department.

Accessing the area wasn't hard because the faked keycards worked perfectly and the faked identities, Chuck had implanted into the system were accepted by the security protocol of the mainframe.

"Volkoff seems to trust his security system blindly." Casey stated. "We've just walked in, and no one had noticed."

"We're not in the building yet, and there is yet another security check to pass." Chuck explained and reminded Casey of the second set of keycards they had faked. Keycards, they will need to access the buildings.

"I have no idea what kind of security measures we will be faced with inside, but I'm quite sure, Morgan and I will be able to handle what ever comes our way."

Morgan took a second set of cards from his pocket and handed them to the team, while Sarah retrieved four lab coats from her bag. Within the blink of an eye they had changed from security guards into lab technicians, and Morgan's and Chuck's expertise made sure them not blowing their covers even when they were confronted with technical questions.

After the security system had compared their fingerprints with the information in its database, the door opened, and they entered the marble tiled corridor that laid behind the door.

Morgan stood at a site plan, hanging framed at the wall.

"It's always said, they have issues with organization and system over her in Serbia – I wish, the buildings back in the states were as well mapped as they were here." He looked closer. "All right... I've found the server room. Up this stairway, to the left and over the gallery above the production hall and the first door to the right."

"Chuck and I will take the server room, the two of you check this floor. It might be helpful to know, what they produce in here."

They split up and Sarah went upstairs after Chuck, while Casey and Morgan checked the production and the storage.

"You have second thoughts about my search for my mom, don't you?" he asked her, when they reached the end of the stairway.

"No Chuck... I really understand your search, and if I were you, I'll probably do the very same."

"So what is it? Since we have arrived in Belgrade, you act kind of strange..."

Sarah stepped to him, and pulled him around by his arm.

"I'm acting strange? Since we came to Belgrade, you have shown things that scare me... You've changed, and I'm not sure if these changes are for the better. This scares me!"

With this words she turned around and ran down the gangway, hanging over the hall at 10ft.

When Chuck finally caught up with her, they stood before the server room's door, and because none of them said a word, he just opened the door and let her enter first. Without a word they started their work, and within minutes they had entered the system. While the vast amount of datastreams was searched for keywords, and the data they found were copied to a hard drive, they sat in mutual silence – till Sarah finally spoke.

"Chuck... It's great you are evolving as a spy, taking the initiative and no longer relying on me to rescue you from any danger..."

"I sense a 'but'."

"But... It really scares me, how hard-boiled and cold you have become – only from time to time, but you did. Are you aware of being ready to torture a man today?"

Sarah herself wasn't aware of the fact, this wasn't what she was scared of – Chuck, like herself, had often crossed boundaries in the past, and she didn't mind at all. She still hadn't realized, that not Chuck's behavior was the reason for her concern, but an instinctive gut call about the search for Mary Elizabeth Bartowski.

"Sarah... I'm still the one, I've always been."

He took her hands in his and just held them.

"Just try to understand me, darling. My father is dead, my sister is going to be a mother, and now, that I finally have found a clue, I want at least some of the family back, I couldn't have when I was a child. I want to know, why my mother left us and Elli and I had to grow up on our own – without parents."

Sarah leaned over Chuck who was sitting bend forward on a chair, and kissed him softly.

"Chuck... I know pretty good, how it's like to grow up without a center of reference or a safe harbor. You've met my father. When I started working for the CIA, I had the feeling of belonging somewhere for the first time in my life. When I first met you, I realized for the first time what security really meant... Or course I understand you, but I'm afraid you might lose yourself in your eagerness and desire of finding your mother. Don't forget that I know very well what you are capable of... Maybe even better than you do."

"So help me to prevent myself from slipping and falling, Sarah!" He pleaded at her. "You know, I can't cease the search... My mom is probably right now waiting for someone to rescue her. The agencies had gave up on her long ago, and if we don't help her, she might be lost for ever. Be my conscience's voice if you have to, help me keeping my balance, but don't try to stop me, because I can't stop."

Chuck had gathered momentum, and his voice almost flipped, when he looked into her eyes, almost panicking.

"Sshhht... Calm down, Chuck... I'll help you, you know it..."

She hugged him and kissed his lips lovingly. Before she realized it, Chuck returned the kiss, and she felt his tongue slide into her mouth.

For a moment, they both forgot about the tension of the past weeks and months, the threatening danger – a factory full of Volkoff's men – at the other side of the door, and also everything else, and just gave in to their passion. Chuck lifted her lab coat and grabbed her buttocks with both hands... When suddenly the door opened and a meager young man with an highly visible acne problem entered the server room.

"Deco... Uzmite sebi sobu. Ja moram da radim ovde."

An understanding and at the same time annoyed smile flashed over his face – obviously his office was abused as a meeting place for lovers on a regular base. That's why he only admonished them and asked them not to detain him from his work and to get themselves a room.

Right then, the hard drive beeped and announced the end of the download, making the man suspicious.

"Ko ste vi? Ja vas još nikad nisam video ovde."

He hastily turned to the door, when he realized, he hadn't seen this couple – which was apparently downloading data from the main frame – before, and tried to alarm the security.

"Zvaću bezbeđenje!"

The young computer technician didn't make it far, because in this moment, he tripped over a cable, smashed himself against the – already closed again – door and slid unconscious to the floor.

Chuck and Sarah in their surprise hadn't had the chance to move at all, because it only took less then two seconds. Now they looked at each other and not only Chuck had to stifle a chuckle.

"We should store him somewhere and get the hell out of here."

Sarah only looked at him and slowly nodded – just to grab him again and kiss him passionately, before she took her radio and called Casey and Morgan, while Chuck removed and stored the hard drive.

"We meet at the gate outside. We got a visitor and have to get out of here before he wakes up again."

With a quick look around they made sure not to have left anything behind pointing their way, sneaked over the gallery and down the stairs. When they left the building, they saw Casey and Morgan already standing at the gate.

They had hardly entered the car, when Casey already hit the accelerator, while Morgan plugged the hard drive into the computer and checked the data.

"Guys... I have good news and bad news."

Sarah and Chuck turned to him, while Casey only looked in the rear mirror.

"The good news are, there are a lot of very incriminating documents, that will allow Orahovac to sweep out the MUP and his own bureau... Names, dates, figures... It's all there. Also a list of clients and suppliers in southeastern Europe."

"And what about the bad news?"

Morgan didn't look happy at all.

"All records concerning your mom were empty... I do find network paths leading to "Frost", but they all are ending blindly. Not a bit of information anymore."

He tried to comfort his friend.

"I can try to rerun them at Castle, maybe I can find something. Don't give up your hopes, Chuck..."

His voice gave him away and already indicated all efforts being in vain.

In the meantime they had reached the center of the town and even Casey was so Heart struck by this twist of fate, he didn't even realize the – apparently drunk – person, who jumped back from the crosswalk the last second.

To Kenneth Richardson's misfortune, despite his intoxicated state, he had seen pretty well who had driven the car that almost had hit him.

'Shit... The CIA is trying to kill me for knowing to much!' went through his mind.

Instantly he was sober again. He was afraid and determined to write to his congressman, once he returned to Boston.

Ðorđe Orahovac was still awake, when they parked the rented car in front of the house.

"Have you been successful? Found, what you were looking for?" he asked, when the team entered the house and stood before his door.

"Yes and no..." Sarah answered and gave him a flash drive with the data from Volkoff's facility.

"With this you can start a real clean up. Seems like here were all contacts listed that ever had got bribe from Volkoff. If you act fast, before the break gets word, you can probably get them all."

"And if someone asks, where you got the information from..." Casey started.

"I'll only mention a oddly load-bearing carrier pigeon, suddenly appearing in my window tonight and afterwards disappearing into thin air." Orahovac answered only half jokingly. "Don't worry, no one will ever know you've been involved in this."

Chuck, Sarah, Casey and Morgan discussed the operation briefly, and it turned out that Morgan and Casey had made some very interesting discoveries – among these also a connection to manufacturer of system electronics who's products were processed by Volkoff Industries.

"The authorities in Germany should take a close look at InterCard SE in the Black forest." Morgan suggested, and even Casey approved the idea.

After the briefing, Chuck pulled Casey aside.

"I have to ask you a favor, Casey. Can you do the mission reports tonight on your own? Sarah and I have some things to discuss, and back in Burbank only the old treadmill is waiting. I'd like to catch the opportunity when we both have some freedom."

Casey nodded and looked at Morgan, who was sitting at the table and worked at the computer.

"Could you..."

"No way! He should stay and pack the equipment. Maybe he can already book our flights."

Chuck looked at Casey and with a smile said: "Try not to kill him."

He knew Casey long enough to know that he wore the grumpy face out of habit and would surely help. With a sigh of relief he looked for Sarah. He wanted to sweep her away from the world of espionage and conspiracies.

'Having access to a great variety of information sources through the Intersect, sometimes also has it's advantages.' he mused, when he came up with the perfect spot for a romantic and relaxed evening.

Sarah was more than game, after it was clear, Morgan and Casey would hold the fort and do the paper work, and with her stuff quickly disappeared into the bathroom to freshen up. Chuck shortly informed her through the bathroom door that he'll wait at the car.

Because Chuck also had to dress up for the evening, he didn't had to wait for long on this tepid October night at the car till Sarah left the house and hugged him with a soft kiss on the cheek.

"We hadn't had a night out for way to long, Chuck."

Chuck agreed and watched her in the street lamp's light. She wore the white sheath dress, she had bought in Paris, plain white high heels, her hair open and in soft waves caressing her shoulders like liquid gold. Judging by the size of her purse, she was unarmed, because only her Lady Derringer .22 would have fit in – more likely she had her ID, her lipstick and her cell phone, what already filled the purse.

"You look beautiful – again, darling."

Like to underline his words, out of nowhere a wolf whistle sounded from someone standing in the darkness at the end of the square. When they looked harder, they registered a movement, and the "young man" who already had admired Sarah some days ago, stepped under a streetlight. He grinned and lifted two thumbs towards Chuck and Sarah.

The laughter, this gesture caused, helped to ease the tension that had held Chuck and Sarah the last couple of days.

While the boy ran home, carrying a wide grin on his face, Chuck helped Sarah into the car, walked around the vehicle and started the engine – with Sarah still chuckling.

The traffic on this Sunday night was lively, but not so dense, it would have hindered them approaching their destination. So Chuck and Sarah arrived less then one hour later at the historic center of Belgrade. A myriad of restaurants, cantinas, taverns and steakhouses lured guests with the scent of tasty food and the sound of cheerful folk music.