7:30 A.M., Pacific Daylight Time
Friday, September 5th, 2008
The Avalon Hotel
Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, California
Beth Reynolds was up early. Since she had gone back to the work for the CIA a month and a half before, her routine had changed drastically.
To begin with, the CIA had moved her to a suite where she could really live and work. Director Graham had decided she would be strictly an analyst for the time being, and that she would stay put on Catalina Island. It was too much of a risk for her to be seen around Langley, even if her appearance had changed.
She maintained her part-time job at Catalina Computers as part of her cover. “At least it’s better than working at Wienerlicious,” she had said. Being in a suite, she had also gotten herself a treadmill, so she could run in peace and quiet without being stopped on the street with computer questions by people who had gotten to know her as the island’s resident tech geek.
Beth had the Channel 4 news on, but the volume was low. However, when she saw Chuck’s face pop up on the television screen, she hit the emergency stop button on the treadmill and quickly turned up the volume.
“…industry newcomer Charles Bartowski wrote the game, called Mindnode,” morning anchor Jennifer Bjorklund was saying. “The game itself has a fascinating premise – an average individual inadvertently downloads a massive government database into his brain, and two government agents are sent in to both protect him and utilize the information in his mind.”
“Real original premise, Chuck,” Beth said to herself – and she actually laughed.
That she laughed actually shocked her. She hadn’t laughed at anything that involved Chuck since before that day on the Vincent Thomas Bridge.
“The game was developed by video game giant Electronic Arts,” Bjorklund continued. “The action scenes, all set in Los Angeles, have a degree of realism that surpasses even the latest installment in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto series. The characters were designed by Bartowski himself, and are voiced by actors Lee Pace, Jewel Staite, and Gareth Lloyd-Davies.”
A screenshot appeared on the television – and Beth’s jaw dropped. She grabbed the TiVo remote and hit pause, freezing the image on the screen.
“How the hell...” she whispered, approaching the big screen plasma television. She looked closely at the three characters. There was the guy in the Nerd Herd uniform, who had clearly been designed based on Chuck’s appearance, the guy in the black suit, clearly designed based on Casey’s appearance…
And then there was the female character. Obviously, Chuck would’ve based the female character on Sarah Walker, but Beth would’ve thought that the character would have long blonde hair and blue eyes.
But no. The character had short red hair, and green eyes. In fact, she was the spitting image of Beth Reynolds. “There’s no possible way he could’ve known,” Beth breathed. “I KNOW he thinks I’m dead!”
Grabbing her cell phone, she dialed a number. “This is Graham, secure,” she heard a moment later.
“Reynolds, secure,” she replied. “Have you seen the images from Mindnode?”
She heard Director Graham chuckle. “I figured you might be curious about that,” he replied. “He has no idea that you look like that now. I spoke with Major Casey, passing my question off as curiosity as to why the character didn’t look like Sarah Walker. He said that Bartowski’s justification was in two parts.
“Part one is that the memory was simply too painful for him to design a character based on you. Part two was that Bartowski didn’t particularly want to share the memory of you with anybody else – he wanted to keep you to himself.”
Beth’s breath caught in her throat. “Oh,” she breathed.
Graham sighed. “You should’ve just said how you felt about him,” he said quietly. “I could’ve helped you work something out with him. You wouldn’t have had to go through all this.”
Beth laughed bitterly. “You and I both know that never would’ve worked,” she replied. “General Beckman would’ve shot anything down. For all I know, she would’ve put out a sanction on both Chuck and me.”
Graham was quiet for a moment. “You’re probably right,” he finally said. “Was there anything else?”
“No, sir,” she replied.
“Alright. Keep me updated on that work on the Fulcrum files.” And he disconnected.
Beth sighed. She had been doing that a lot lately. Picking up the TiVo remote, she hit play, and the newscast resumed.
“The characters names are Rick McCune, Tara Pierce, and Robert Johnson,” Bjorklund explained. “Respectively, they are an employee of Best Buy’s Geek Squad, a CIA Agent, and a British M:I-6 agent.
“The premiere party is being held tonight at the opulent Neptune home of Balboa County Supervisor Logan Echolls. It’s expected to be a star-studded event. Bartowski himself will be in attendance, along with co-developer Morgan Grimes.”
6:00 P.M.
Neptune, California
Ellie Bartowski’s Pontiac G6 pulled up in the driveway of Logan Echolls’ enormous home. Ellie wasn’t herself in the car – she had said that there was no way they were going to the party in Veronica’s LeBaron, and had given an emphatic “HELL NO” to going in Chuck’s Herder.
“Holy crap,” Morgan uttered as they pulled up in front of the house. “This is insane.”
Chuck shrugged. “I’ve been down in the area before for Nerd Herd calls,” he explained. “Just never been here.”
Veronica turned to Chuck. “Chuck… do you mind if I ask you a personal question?”
“With Morgan in the car?” Chuck replied cheekily. “I don’t know if he can handle it.”
Morgan rolled his eyes. “Ask him the question, Veronica.”
“Why do you still work at the Buy More? You’re worth enough that you don’t have to now. You’re going to get royalties and percentages like you wouldn’t believe off the game, and anything that gets developed off of it.”
Chuck thought about it for a moment. “I… I really don’t know,” he finally replied. “I guess, it’s familiar, it’s comforting… and well, I just feel like if I leave the Buy More, it’ll be like I’m partly leaving her behind.”
Veronica and Morgan exchanged a glance. They both know exactly who Chuck was talking about when he said “her”. “Morgan, do you mind if Chuck and I talk for a moment?” Veronica asked.
“Not at all,” Morgan replied, quickly bailing.
“Let me rephrase the question, Chuck,” Veronica said after the door had shut. “You’re twenty-two credits short of your bachelor’s degree in computer engineering. You have been for five years. Why are you still at the Buy More?”
Chuck shook his head. “I guess I just didn’t feel like finishing my degree after getting expelled from Stanford,” he said quietly. “I didn’t want to risk re-opening any old wounds.”
Veronica sighed. “That’s fine, Chuck, but you know what? You’re an adult. That’s the kind of thing where you take a semester off, maybe a year, and then you enroll at CSUN, or UCLA, and you finish your degree. You can’t spend the rest of your life living in adolescent-land.”
He shrugged. “Why not, though? It’s like you said – I’m a successful video game writer now. I’m going to make plenty of money. And it’s not like you have any room to talk – you dropped out of Hearst after, what, three semesters? I mean, yeah, so you’re an FBI agent now. And?”
She narrowed her eyes. That remark stung. “I’m just going to ignore that last bit for now,” she said through clenched teeth. “The reason you can’t spend the rest of your life as a teenager is because if you do, you’ll end up like the people who live here in Neptune, and I can’t stand the thought of seeing you like that.”
Chuck looked her in the eyes. “I don’t understand what the problem with ending up like the people here is,” he replied. “And how can you really talk about them like that? After all, aren’t you friends with Logan Echolls?”
Veronica rolled her eyes. “He’s… different. He’s a good person, if somewhat… unbalanced. The rest of the people here are assholes and losers.”
“Seems to me like the assholes and losers have something going for them,” Chuck replied. With that, he opened the driver’s door of the car and got out.
“Goddammit,” Veronica hissed to herself, getting out of the car. She had to run to catch up to Chuck, who was already a fair distance away from her.
She caught up to him just as they reached the front door. The doorman opened it for them, and as they stepped inside, an announcer standing at a lectern called off their names.
“Veronica Janel Mars, of Neptune, accompanied by Charles Irving Bartowski, of Santa Monica!”
“The man of the hour!” called a voice from across the room, and that was followed by a spontaneous burst of applause. Chuck turned red, but smiled and nodded his head in acknowledgment.
The source of the voice quickly made its way to Chuck. “So you’re Chuck Bartowski, Nerd Herder and video game creator extraordinaire.”
“And you’re Logan Echolls, youngest county supervisor in the history of Balboa County,” Chuck replied. “Exactly how the hell did that happen?”
“Well,” Logan replied, “your girlfriend here kind of went on a reign of terror that ended up with a large number of Neptune’s finest either dead or on the lam.”
Chuck held up a hand. “Wait, Veronica’s not my girlfriend.”
Logan cocked an eyebrow. “Why the hell not?”
Veronica looked from Chuck to Logan and back again. “If you’ll excuse me for a moment, I need to go detestosterone myself,” she said, rolling her eyes.
As she walked away, Logan looked after her. “Seriously. You showed up with her, but she’s not your girlfriend?”
“Nope,” Chuck replied, shaking his head. “She’s just a friend. On another topic, I have to ask what it’s like to basically be the mayor of the 90909 at your age.”
Logan nodded. “It’s intimidating,” he said. “All the people here – they’ve known me since I was born. I grew up here. They think they’ve got all this dirt they can hold over me, when really, it turns out that I was one of the most spic-and-span people in the neighborhood. But seriously, dude. I’ve seen you and Veronica interacting with each other for all of fifteen seconds, and I can tell that she likes you. And your excuse is…”
Chuck sighed. “I just don’t know if I can deal with dating right now,” he replied quietly.
“Bad breakup?”
“Not really,” Chuck said, hoping Logan would take the hint and end that particular line of questioning.
“How long’s it been?”
“Seven months.”
Logan raised his other eyebrow. “Seven months? Come on, man, maybe it’s time to move on.”
Chuck put a hand to his forehead. “No, you don’t understand.”
“What’s there to understand?” Logan asked. “You’ve been out of the relationship for seven months. You clearly need to get some, and from what I can see, it’s willing and waiting.”
Chuck studied Logan Echolls for a long moment, and finally said, “Do you remember the Vincent Thomas Bridge jumper, back at the end of January?”
“Of course,” Logan replied. “Hard to forget. We all thought it was a real waste down here – I mean, come on, a hot blonde with a Porsche 911?”
Chuck winced. “Yeah, Sarah Walker,” he said softly. “She was my girlfriend.”
Logan’s eyes went wide. “Oh, man,” he groaned. “Oh, Jesus Christ. Goddammit. I’m an ass. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Chuck replied, shaking his head. “It’s just… I mean, much as I hate to admit it, I think I’m still in love with her, and Veronica just reminds me SO MUCH of her sometimes…”
Logan nodded, a grim smile crossing his face. “Totally understand you there, man,” he replied. “You remember the Lilly Kane murder, five years back?”
“Of course,” Chuck replied. “Veronica’s dad was the investigating officer, thought the girl’s dad did it, except it turned out –“
He stopped himself. “Shit,” he muttered. “I do believe that I’m now the one suffering from foot-in-mouth.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, don’t worry about it,” he replied. “Everybody knows, it was my father, the almighty actor Aaron Echolls who killed her. What not as many people know is that I was Lilly’s boyfriend. I was in love with her for a long time after it happened.”
“Gotcha,” Chuck mused. “So what changed that?”
“Veronica did,” Logan admitted. “I fell in love with her. Problem is, I haven’t been able to fall back out.”
“Oh,” Chuck replied. “Um, that’s somewhat awkward.”
“Nah,” Logan said. “It’s not gonna go anywhere. We determined that a long time ago. Seriously, though, if she likes you, you really ought to go for it. She’s an incredible woman.”
Chuck nodded. “I know. And believe me, the thought has crossed my mind.”
But the fact of the matter was, with the one year anniversary of the day Chuck had met Sarah coming up, she was on his mind more than ever.
This was not a good time to be thinking about a new relationship.
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