Chuck vs the Sentinel Part 3B
They had just received their meal when Chuck felt his sentinel’s fear resonate along their link. Chuck paled. Casey was an NSA assassin; Chuck didn’t think Casey feared anything. Sarah noticed Chuck’s pallor.
“Chuck, what’s wrong?” Sarah whispered.
“Casey.” Chuck said, “He’s in trouble.”
Sarah nodded then excused herself to go to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom, she pulled her out her cell phone and contacted General Beckman who would send a team to the location of Casey’s GPS coordinates from his watch. She returned to the table and made excuses about how her father had just called her saying her mother was ill. Chuck offered to go with her and the two of them left Ellie and Devon with money enough to cover their part of the bill.
As they drove to the Buy More at breakneck speeds, Sarah’s cell phone rang. She answered and listened to General Beckman tell her that they had found Casey’s watch, and the clothes he had been wearing in a trash bag in a dumpster about eight blocks from the Buy More. The General ordered her to take Chuck to castle until they could determine if Casey disappearance had anything to do with the Intersect.
Sarah hung up the phone and told Chuck what Beckman had said.
“I don’t think it does, but I don’t know that for sure. All I felt from Casey was fear and now all I feel is this quietness through the link as if he’s asleep or unconscious.” Chuck said.
“We can check the surveillance footage of the Buy More at Castle, maybe you will flash on something. “ Sarah said as she pulled into the mall parking lot. Sarah pulled out her gun and did a sweep of the area before escorting Chuck into the Orange Orange and down into the Castle. She breathed more easily once the door to Castle was securely locked behind her.
At the monitor stations, Chuck typed into the computer and pulled up the surveillance footage from a few minutes before the time that Chuck felt the fear hit him. He watched as Casey brought out the cardboard boxes to be thrown in the dumpster. He saw how Casey seemed to get more alert and then get hit by a tranquilizer dart. Sarah was standing behind him watching the monitor as well, and she squeezed Chuck’s shoulder supportively.
As the men got out of the van, Chuck narrowed his eyes and paused the video. Typing in some commands, Chuck managed to get the video to enlarge and enhance the area of the man’s hand that held the tranquilizer. Just as the picture jumped into focus, Chuck began to flash.
The tattoo on the man’s hand told him exactly who had Casey and he had nothing to do with the Intersect.
“Call the General, Sarah. Casey wasn’t taken because he’s spy,” Chuck said as he turned his chair to look at the CIA agent, “he was taken because he’s a sentinel.”
When Casey regained consciousness the first thing he became aware of was that the hood was still on his head blocking his vision. When he tried to reach up to remove it he discovered that while his hands were now in front they were still cuffed with the padded leather restraints and chained to a belt at his waist keeping him from bring them up past his chest. The belt was part of a harness that was fitted over his chest and shoulders and wrapped around his waist and thighs holding it in place. It was also the only thing he was wearing, his clothes having gone missing. Touch afforded him the knowledge that he was laying inside a sleeping bag that was lying on a padded foam covering on the floor. His hearing told him that he wasn’t the only one in the room. Some of the people in the room were motionless, while others walked around. He could hear some of the people who were lying motionless crying softly and knew that those were other sentinels who had been captured.
Casey tried to stand only to find out that where he was had too low of a ceiling for him to do that. Instead he crouched down on his knees and sent out his hearing as far as he could.
He found some voices discussing many subjects. Some of the guards were playing a hand of poker. Two others were enjoying their time off with each other. Eventually Casey found what he was looking for. A small group was discussing their plans on getting their captives out of the US and into international waters where they were planning to have an online auction.
“The ship is docking tomorrow. We will load the sentinels into a cargo container and have it placed on the ship. Our man down at the docks will make sure that our activities go unnoticed.” One of the men said.
“We have a good haul. Each of those sentinels are worth five million at least.” Another man said.
“Just make sure they are taken care of. Dead sentinels aren’t worth anything. And if I catch any man marking up the merchandise I will kill him and feed his body to the fish.”
And with that their conversation was done. Casey knew that the FBI had been looking for these men for quite sometime. These men or others like them have been responsible for the disappearance of over two hundred sentinels in the last eight years. Except they really didn’t disappear, Casey had run into one of them when he had to take out a target in the Tangiers. Casey had hated killing the sentinel since it hadn’t been the sentinel’s fault that he had been sold to the warlord and forcibly bonded. Even a forced bond causes a sentinel to be protective of the guide and Casey had to take out the sentinel to get to the warlord.
Casey knew if he didn’t find some way to escape that could very easily be his fate.