Chapter 8
Sydney knew exactly what to do. She got up from the floor, walked over to her lunch tray, and grabbed a knife. She then moved towards the door quietly. Sydney slowly moved the knife under the door and angled it to try and get a reflection of who it was. She didn’t need to see anything more than grayish-white hair and a suit to know who it was. “Vaughn, open that window over there. Sloane is the one trying to pick the lock.” She whispered.
“Syd, we’re on the second floor. There is no way we can make it down without any equipment.”
“Just open the window and see what we have to work with. Look for a drainage pipe or something.” Vaughn nodded and opened the window. He looked out to the left and saw a drainage pipe next to the window at an acceptable distance. Just our luck, he thought as he motioned for Sydney to come.
“There’s a drainage pipe right here, but we need something to make it easier to slide down it.”
“Here, we’ll use this.” Sydney grabbed the pillow on her bed and took off the pillow case. Vaughn then insisted she go first so she would be safe. She moved towards the pipe, wrapped the pillow case around the back of it, kissed Vaughn, and slid down. When she got to the bottom, she practically fell since there wasn’t anything there to stop her sliding.
“Syd, are you okay?” Vaughn yelled from above.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Vaughn, I’m sure there’s another pillow case in the closet, hurry!” Vaughn ran towards the closet door, opened it and grabbed the spare pillow case. He then ran for the window, but just as he wrapped the pillow case around the pipe, the door opened. Sloane spotted him and moved towards the window. Vaughn slid down.
“I will find you, Sydney.” Sloane called to them in his calm, mysterious voice. Vaughn and Sydney ran to the nearest cab and got in. Sloane picked up his cell phone and said in the receiver, “The projects are on the move. I just missed them . . . Yes, of course I want you to go after them . . . Yes, do that and meet me at the diner around the corner as soon as you’re done.” Sloane hung up and smiled grimly as he moved away from the window.
***
Vaughn moaned in the cab. “Is it your stomach again?” Sydney asked fearfully.
“Yeah, its okay I’m fine. I’ll be fine.”
“Vaughn, let me see.” Sydney insisted as she leaned over, curled her hair behind her ears and pulled up his shirt. She removed the bandage she had given him earlier and he breathed in hard, due to the pain. “Oh my god, Vaughn! This is terrible. As soon as we get to headquarters, I’ll get someone to take care of it.”
“Syd, there may not even be a headquarters.” They both looked at each other in fright of their realization. “Whatever happens Syd, I want you to know that I’ve always loved you.”
“I know Michael,” She said softly, “I know.” Vaughn leaned towards her and kissed her again. The cab stopped. “We’re here. This is it.” They arrived at the entry point for the CIA. Sydney went to the broken down telephone as before, and entered her pass code. The door near the phone opened, which pleased both Sydney and Vaughn. There was a CIA after all.