Chapter 76: The Update
"Everybody hold on."
Chuck came through the platform access door with the money bag in one hand and the particular expression of a man who had thought of something while running and wasn't entirely sure it would work.
Every weapon in the vicinity moved toward him simultaneously.
"Just — hear me out," Chuck said. He swallowed. "In this bag is four and a half million dollars. Unmarked. I don't know what you were paid to come here tonight, but I'd be surprised if it's more than this." He set the bag on the platform floor in front of the three gunmen. "So. You can take the bag and walk out of here. Or you can find out what a firefight in a train station costs everybody." He looked at them. "Those are both complete options. I'll wait while you decide."
The three men looked at each other. Looked at the bag. Looked at the three people pointing weapons at them from the opposite end of the platform.
They took the bag.
They left.
Hayes exhaled with the whole-body relief of someone who had recently moved the end of his story considerably further away. He grabbed Chuck by both shoulders. "You're remarkable. Genuinely remarkable."
"Don't encourage him," Casey said, appearing from behind Simon to separate Hayes from Chuck and take the chip from Hayes's keychain with the practiced ease of someone completing the actual objective of an operation. "He also just gave away ninety thousand dollars of government money."
"It was only ninety thousand?" Hayes said.
"He thought it was four and a half million," Chuck said, in the tone of someone offering this as context rather than comfort.
"Nobody tell him it wasn't," Simon said.
Casey looked at Chuck. "You got the chip. You lost the money. Don't make me grade that."
"I also saved everyone's lives," Chuck said.
"Ongoing discussion," Casey said, already walking.
"Where are you going?"
"To get the money back, obviously."
Chuck watched him go. Then looked at Simon and Bryce. "He's going to get it back, isn't he."
"Almost certainly," Simon said. "Come on. We still have Hayes."
They were moving Hayes through the main hall toward the exit when the woman appeared.
She stepped out from behind a support column — blonde, the white blouse from the party the night before now under a dark jacket, a compact weapon already at Chuck's temple before anyone had completed the calculation of where she'd come from.
The hall cleared fast. Travelers read the situation in about two seconds and found somewhere else to be.
Hayes, whose window had just reopened, took two steps toward the exit before Simon's hand closed on his collar.
"Can you handle this?" Simon said to Bryce, without taking his eyes off Hayes.
Bryce looked at the woman, looked at where Sarah had just appeared on the far side of the hall, and nodded. "Take Hayes."
Simon walked Hayes toward the exit.
Casey was outside, returning from the direction the three gunmen had gone, carrying the money bag.
He looked at Simon. Then at Hayes.
"What happened inside?" Casey said.
"Fulcrum operative. She grabbed Chuck. Bryce and Sarah are handling it."
Casey exhaled through his nose — the specific exhale of a man who had expected exactly this and was tired of being right about it. "Stay with Hayes. I'll go."
He handed Simon the bag and went back inside.
Simon stood with Hayes outside Union Station in the December afternoon while the city moved around them and waited for the situation inside to resolve.
Fifteen minutes later, Casey came out with Sarah, Bryce, Chuck, and a wounded woman in zip ties who moved with the particular resignation of someone who had lost and was managing it professionally.
The woman was the Fulcrum operative from Von Hayes's party.
The chip was with Casey.
Hayes was with Simon.
The operation was, by any reasonable accounting, complete — though the road to completion had involved more improvisation than the briefing had suggested.
The next morning, Simon found Chuck at the Nerd Herd desk with the same expression he always had the morning after something significant — a kind of recalibrated steadiness, like a compass that had been shaken and was finding north again.
Simon came to stand beside him for the daily check-in.
DING.
[ Intersect 1.5 system detected in Chuck Bartowski. Check-in available. ]
[ Congratulations — Intersect 1.5 loading initiated (1%). 33 consecutive days required for full update. ]
Simon spent a moment with this. Another thirty-three days. Another percentage point of capability, loading quietly in the background of whatever else his life was doing.
"You okay?" Chuck said.
Simon blinked back to the desk. "Fine. You?"
"Considering everything." Chuck shrugged. "What are you doing for Christmas?"
"Miami, maybe. Or something will come up and I'll handle that instead." Simon looked at him. "You?"
Chuck was quiet for a moment. "I had plans. I'm adjusting them." He said it with the particular philosophical acceptance of someone who had spent enough time around Casey and Beckman to understand that plans were provisional at best.
Simon patted his shoulder once and went to work.
One week before Christmas. Friday lunch.
"The double date," Veronica said, appearing at the table. "I'm moving it to this weekend. Christmas itself doesn't work for everyone, so — Saturday."
Simon glanced at Logan, who was beside Veronica in the specific proximity that had stopped being subtle around the time it started being consistent.
"No," Simon said.
"Why?"
"I have something to handle this weekend."
Meg looked at him. "Since when?"
"It came up," Simon said. "I'm sorry, Meg. Give me the weekend and I'll make it up."
Meg studied him for a moment. Then: "Fine. Go handle it."
She said it without drama, which was its own kind of trust.
After school, Simon found Casey at the Buy More.
"I need the weekend," Simon said. "If something comes up, call me — I'll come back."
"Convenient," Casey said. "We have something tonight."
"Tonight?" Simon looked at Chuck, who had the specific alert energy of someone who had recently committed to a plan. "What is it?"
"Sarah's high school friend may be connected to a precision weapons leak. Chuck arranged a double date to get eyes on the situation." Casey paused. "Chuck's also curious about aspects of Sarah's past that are none of his business, which contributed to the arrangement."
Simon processed this.
"I'm half a day out of the loop," he said, "and somehow we're at a surveillance double date."
"Welcome to the Bartowski operation," Casey said, without detectable irony.
"I'll come tonight," Simon said. "The weekend I still need."
"Your call."
Simon looked at Chuck — who was checking his phone, probably confirming a reservation somewhere, completely committed to whatever sequence of decisions had led him here.
"He's going to be wherever Sarah is," Simon said, mostly to himself.
"Always," Casey said.
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