kidblink83
Cadet
***These are all the chapters I posted on fanfiction.net while allalias has been out of commission. I would have added a new chapter today as I'm posting it. But fanfiction.net has now died on me. So I'll PM everyone on my list when I get that extra chapter up...***
Chapters 62 through 65
“Where do we begin?” Sydney asked.
“Irina, Sark, and I have been discussing it,” Jack said. “We believe Anna Espinosa to be working for the Covenant. Sark received an offer of employment from them a few weeks ago.”
“You didn’t mention that to me,” Sydney said narrowing her eyes.
“I didn’t think it was important,” Sark replied. “I would have told you eventually, Sydney. You know that.”
“He mentions things to her?” Weiss whispered to Vaughn. “When did that happen?”
Weiss obviously wasn’t whispering soft enough because Sydney could hear him clearly. “Eric, Sark’s first name is Andrew.” She almost laughed at the shocked look on his face as his mouth dropped open. “He’s the man I’ve been running off to see for the past few months. And no, he’s not my boyfriend. Though that was a good guess on your part.”
Weiss’s mouth began to open and close as he struggled to form a reaction.
“Can we move on?” Irina asked impatiently.
“I received a job offer from the Covenant. I always intended to turn them down. I’ve gotten close to Sydney these past few months. Together, she and I deduced what they had done to her for the two years she was missing. I would never have accepted their offer of employment if it weren’t in both of our best interests. I may look and act like a monster in most of your opinions, but I could never stoop to such lows as the Covenant does. Believe that.”
“So how is this going to help us?” Vaughn asked.
“Sark is going to get in contact with the Covenant and accept their invitation. He is going to explain to them that he knows they have Kaylee and Grayson,” Jack informed them.
“I’m going to tell them that I’ll do whatever they say as long as they let me see Kaylee and my son.”
“Grayson is your kid?” Marshall practically shrieked. He noticed that no one else was having the same reaction. “And I was the only one who didn’t know about this. Typical. Leave the lowly tech guy out of all the important classified information.”
“Hey, I didn’t know about it before today either,” Sark said.
“It was all in Gray’s best interest,” Will said softly. “Kaylee wanted to decide if she was going to let you back into her life before she told you that he was your son. She didn’t want to have to go through all of that if she wasn’t even going to allow you to see him.”
“Understandable.” Sark did, in fact, understand the logic behind it, but that didn’t mean it still didn’t hurt to know that he might have never realized Grayson was his son. His child may have grown up without even knowing that his father was alive.
“She made her decision, though. Right before Anna interrupted us at the house. She was going to let you back in,” Will continued.
Sark nodded his appreciation for Will’s confession. He knew that it was hard for Will to be so civil towards him after their past history.
“Back to the plan,” Sydney said. “I don’t think that the whole Sark joining the Covenant thing is going to work. They won’t believe that he would change his loyalties that easily. Even if he can use his skills at lying to convince them, it would take him forever to learn the layouts of the building. I honestly think we don’t have that long a time to get Kaylee and Grayson out of there. Besides, we could be sacrificing one of the best assets we have, and I refuse to do that.”
“What other options do we have, Sydney?” Irina asked.
“I used to be the best agent the Covenant had ever seen. That’s why they wanted me so bad. They went to enormous lengths just to bring me to their side. Who’s to say that I don’t still have that agent somewhere inside me? I think that I have knowledge of the facilities the Covenant has. The brainwashing I had performed on myself doesn’t seem to be as solid as I would have liked it to have been at one time.”
“How is this going to help us?” Jack asked.
“I think they’re holding Kaylee at their facility in Rome. I was based there for the majority of the time I worked for the Covenant. The floor plans are running through my brain as we speak. I can see the corridors and all the possible exits. I can tell you who works in what office. Their whole operation in Rome is like an open book to me. This whole time, the CIA has had an inside source to the Covenant, but because of the strength and determination most of you present, they haven’t utilized me.”
“It would have destroyed you if the CIA had pushed you for information,” Vaughn reminded her. “We all knew that.”
“And I’m glad they didn’t. Because I avoided the trauma of that, I can remember things a lot clearer than I would have ever expected.”
“So you’re proposing what exactly?” Sark asked.
“I’m proposing we treat this like a normal mission. You, me, my mother, and my father go in. We’re four of the best agents out there. There’s no way that the Covenant can outsmart and outfight all four of us if we work together. And we have two of the best handlers the CIA has to offer, who both happen to be field trained.” Sydney smiled at Vaughn and Weiss. “They can serve as our back-up. Marshall here will stay with them wherever I have our base set up. He can do some on spot tech work if we need him to. Will, as long as the hospital gives you leave, you can come with us to Rome. I don’t know how much help you’ll be, but I know you want to be there.”
“Thank you, Sydney.” Will smiled at her.
“How can you be so sure that Kaylee is in Rome?” Irina asked. “I don’t really doubt your instinct, but if you’re wrong… If she isn’t there, we’ve wasted probably the only window of opportunity we have.”
“She’s in Rome. Trust me. Simon Walker would never have given up the location of my sister to the other organizations. It’s a known fact that he is a member of the Covenant. The Covenant would never let another organization get the upper hand on them.” Sydney looked at her father. “That is why I also know that Anna Espinosa is working with the Covenant. The purpose of Simon Walker’s gathering was to make every organization think that the Covenant had nothing to do with Kaylee and Grayson’s kidnapping. He was there to give them a solid alibi. To keep the CIA from focusing on them when they realized that the two of them had gone missing. But the Covenant had absolutely everything to do with it. I saw Walker’s face when Anna burst through the window and snatched the paper out of his hands.”
“He was expecting it,” Sark said as realization dawned on his face. “He knew she was going to be there. He knew that she was going to get to him before we did.”
“He turned the lights off in the building to help her escape,” Sydney added. “Simon Walker is in Rome as we speak, I know it. It was his base of operations just as it was mine. Since he is so deep in this whole situation, they wouldn’t take Kaylee to another facility. She’s in Rome. So are Simon and Anna.”
“Sounds convincing enough,” Weiss said. “When do we leave?”
“Now,” Will said. “The doctor told me that I could check myself out of the hospital as soon as I wanted. I asked him. He said he didn’t recommend it, but he couldn’t keep me here. I just need to sign the papers and we’re gone.”
“Good,” Sydney said standing up. She walked over to Will. “Will you do me a favor?”
“Anything, Syd.”
She slipped the engagement ring off of her finger. “Hold this for me until I come back with my sister and nephew.”
“Sure thing,” Will said taking the ring. He looked over at Sark. “I’ve been holding another engagement ring for over two years now. Kaylee couldn’t stand the sight of it, and she told me to get rid of it. But I couldn’t. I knew someday she’d regret losing the one thing she cherished the most besides her son.” He paused and then corrected himself. “Besides her son and you. I’ll hold that ring until you come back. Then I think you should give it to her. She wants it back.”
Sark nodded at Will. “Thank you.”
“Let’s go,” Sydney said as she pushed Will’s wheelchair towards the door. “We have two people who are counting on us to find them.”
“Vaughn, are you there?” Sydney said softly as she and Sark made their way into what looked like a big corporate research center. In reality, it was an elaborate cover-up for the Covenant’s main facility in Rome. The two of them were posing as a husband and wife team of engineers who were interesting in merging their small business with that of the Inganno Corporation.
“I can hear you, Syd,” Vaughn’s voice echoed back in her ear. “Too bad I can’t see you. I hear the clothes your mother found you two are quite a sight.”
“That’s an understatement.” Sydney looked down at herself. She was wearing an extremely sharp Dolce & Gabbana business suit, which consisted of black pants, a black halter dress, and a black jacket. Her mother had found her an amazing short red wig and a pair of transparent red sunglasses. It made Sydney look like she was indeed a part owner of an incredibly successful engineering corporation.
Her mother had outfitted Sark in the same fashion. He was wearing a Versace black turtleneck, knee-length duster, and black pants. The best part, in Sydney’s opinion, was the fact that he had agreed to let her spike his hair and highlight the tips a bright blue. His whole image was a complete contradiction, a clash of punk and classy businessman.
“Are you ready, darling?” Sydney asked as she slipped her hand into Sark’s.
“Let’s do this,” he said. Not missing a beat, he continued quietly so that only Sydney could hear him, “I know we’re married and all. But I just want you to know that I plan on having an affair with your little sister.”
“And I’m going to have one with our co-worker,” Sydney said back with a little giggle. “So we’re even.” She knew that it might not be the most appropriate way to act, joking around like this when her sister and nephew were kidnapped. But she also had come to realize that Sark’s strongest defense mechanisms were his complete indifference and his humor.
The couple walked hand and hand into the lobby of the Inganno Corporation. Sydney drew a paper out from her pocket and handed it to the receptionist. “James and Ripley Taylor here to see Mr. Mantovini,” she said in a British accent.
Sydney had timed their entrance so that the receptionist was on the phone with a rather important client when she handed her the paper. Since the receptionist was so distracted, she just mouthed the words seventh floor to them and pointed in the general direction of the elevators.
“Thank you,” Sark said. He placed his hand on the small of Sydney’s back and directed her to the elevators.
Luckily, no one else was around so they were able to get the whole elevator to themselves. Sydney pressed the seventh floor button. As soon as they had reached the fifth floor, Sark stretched around Sydney to press the emergency stop button. Then, he dug into his pocket and pulled out a small disc shaped object. He placed it on the receiver of the emergency phone that was in the elevator.
“Marshall, can you hear my voice?” Sark asked into the newly place disc and phone receiver.
“I can hear you loud and clear.” Marshall had programmed the disc to allow him to hear and participate in the conversations that occurred on the emergency phone. While Sydney and Sark were elsewhere, he was using some voice software he had picked up from one of his tech contacts to impersonate both of their voices and British accents. They wanted the Covenant to think that James and Ripley Taylor were stuck in the elevator for as long as they could.
Sydney threw the bag she was using as a purse on the ground and began to rifle through it. She pulled out a few canisters and handed them to Sark. Next she removed a small black pack. She handed it to Sark, lifted up her shirt, and turned her back to him. He fixed it onto her back snuggly and fastened the two Velcro strips securely over her abdomen.
Nodding at her, Sark crouched down slightly and put his hands together into a foothold. Sydney used that as leverage and pushed the emergency hatch of the elevator open. She pulled herself up on top of the elevator and then gave Sark a hand in joining her.
“There’s the ladder I remembered. The Covenant has these in all their facilities’ elevator shafts. It’s a defensive precaution in case someone cuts the facility’s power. The agents stuck in the elevators always has an escape route,” she explained.
Both of them started to climb the ladder up until Sydney signaled down to Sark, who was below her, that they had reached their destination. Sark was surprised to see Sydney suddenly disappear from view completely. When he had climbed the ladder up to the level she had disappeared at, he realized that there was a door size opening leading into a hallway.
“This place is straight out of a high-tech, sci-fi movie,” Sydney said holding out her hand to him. “There are hallways that end in dead drops and doors that lead nowhere. It’s one of the many safety measures. It’s rather suspicious when someone who’s trying to pretend they are an agent of the Covenant can’t make their way around the building or keeps opening doors that any agent would know leads nowhere.”
“Where are we?” he asked as they started walking down the hallway.
“We’re on the ninth floor. The Inganno Corporation’s false offices end on the eighth. We’re in the heart of the Covenant’s operation. Try to look evil. We need to blend in.”
“What are we doing here?” he asked.
“I’ll explain in just a moment.” Sydney stopped at an office door. She stared at the digital keypad for a moment and then punched in seven numbers. The door unlocked with a small beep from the keypad. “You think they’d change the codes when they lose one of their brainwashed agents.”
Sark stared at the rather normal looking office. “Where are we now?”
“This is Simon Walker’s office,” Sydney said with a grin. “We’re here to hack into the Covenant’s mainframe and figure out where they’re holding Kaylee and Gray.”
Sark nodded his approval and watched Sydney begin to type rapidly on the laptop that was sitting open on the desk. She began to explain what she was doing. “I figure that my password into the mainframe system won’t still be good so I’m just trying to hack a random agent’s password. Once I have that I’ll log in as them. Hopefully, he or she will have a high enough clearance for me to get the information we want.”
“There,” Sark said pointing to the right hand corner of the screen. “Looks like Lauren had access to this server. It’s only right for you to use her as a gateway into the system. Then the Covenant will think that she’s betrayed them to the CIA.”
“You’re right. It’s only fitting.” Sydney typed silently for a few more minutes. “Damn,” she hissed.
“What’s the problem?” rang Vaughn’s voice in her ear.
“I see the location that would be my best guess at where they’re holding Kaylee and Gray. I wasn’t expecting to find any information that completely spelled it out. The Covenant wouldn’t be that sloppy, no matter how confident they are getting. However, it looks like the Covenant’s system can’t be wiped from one of their secondary terminals.” Part of their plan was to distract a good portion of the Covenant’s operatives present at the facility by wiping clean the whole computer system. On their flight over to Rome, Will had helped Marshall create a rather nasty virus to do the job.
“Do you have a backup plan?” Sark asked her.
“Yes, I think I do.” Sydney began to type on the computer again. “Vaughn? I need you to tell my mother and father to get suited up. I’m sending you a location of where I want them to go. I need them in this building if we’re going to be able to pull this whole rescue mission off. Sark and I will meet them at the provided location. Get them wired up with Weiss. He’s going to have to monitor their progress while you stick with Sark and me.”
“Got it, Sydney,” Vaughn answered.
Sydney shut the laptop and turned to Sark. “Looks like we need to get back down to the first floor.”
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sark was amazed at the massive amount of knowledge Sydney had begun to recall about the Covenant and their operations. When they left Simon Walker’s office, she had quickly led him down a few corridors to a door that opened right into a staircase. She had made some crack about the Covenant being a fan of M.C. Escher, and then they were rushing down eight flights of stairs.
Before she opened the door that would lead them out to the hallways of the first floor, she turned to Sark, “We’re going to have to blend in with everything around us. The Covenant cannot realize that you and I are in this building.”
“Understood,” Sark said with a curt nod.
Sydney walked through the door and began to blend herself into the steady stream of people walking up and down the hallway. Sark waited a moment and then followed her.
They walked for about five minutes, just following the stream of people, before Sark saw Sydney suddenly dart into a room. He followed her lead and found himself in what appeared to be a test site for some biological weapon.
“These are some of the labs the Covenant keeps up to enforce their cover story. They actually have been doing some good work with genetically altered foods,” Sydney explained. She walked to the back of the lab to a door that was marked ‘Emergency Door. Alarm will sound if opened.’
“Is it wise to open that?” Sark asked as Sydney pushed on the handle. No alarms rang.
“They like to keep their employees locked up inside the building. It’s just a scare tactic.” She peered out the door she had just cracked slightly. She could see her mother and father making their way over. “They’re out there.”
Sark grabbed a screwdriver off of the table next to him and put it into the crack of the door. “Let’s step back. If we’re not in the line of sight, it should make their entrance into the facility look a little less conspicuous.”
They stepped over to the side and a minute later, Jack and Irina were standing next to them.
“Explain what you need us to do,” Irina said smiling at her daughter.
“Sark and I don’t have time to create our own distraction and make it down to the second sub-basement to free Kaylee and Grayson. So we need you to go down to the first sub-basement. When you get there, there should be a room with the main Covenant computer. I sent Vaughn a map of the sub-basement I pulled off Walker’s laptop, the codes that should open the door, and the information you‘ll need to log on to the system. You’ll probably have to deal with a few armed guards. That shouldn’t be that much of a problem. First I want you to download as much information as you can off of the Covenant computer. We’re in a very opportune position, and I won’t leave until we’ve utilized it. Only after that do I want you two to wipe the system like Sark and I originally intended to do. Once that’s done, unless Weiss tells you otherwise, get as far away from the facility as you can.”
Jack nodded at his daughter and turned to leave. Irina didn’t follow him. Instead she stepped closer to her daughter and looked closely into her eyes. “You remind me of myself, Sydney.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, I am your daughter,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Everything I ever did was to keep you safe,” Irina continued. “To teach you the skills I knew you need to survive. I hope that someday you can forgive me for what I’ve done.”
Irina turned and left Sydney staring at her back as she walked away.
“Let’s go,” Sark said gently touching Sydney’s shoulder. “We have a job to do. You can figure out Irina later.”
Sydney nodded at him but still kept that far off look on her face. Sark grasped her hand and practically dragged her out of the room. “We’re out in the open now, Syd. I need you to stay with me.”
“Okay.” She scrunched her face up in concentration. “This way.”
She led him back to the elevator lobby they had originally been in the first time they were on this floor. Instead of pushing a button and waiting for any of the elevators, she opened a door marked Maintenance. What was inside didn’t have anything to do with maintenance.
The room was about the size of a phone booth. Straight in front of them were an elevator door and a keypad. Sydney punched in some numbers swiftly, and the door slid open.
“Explain,” Sark said as they stepped into the elevator.
“The sub-basements are the location of most of the top secret actions of the Covenant. It makes them incredibly hard to get to. This is the more obscure entrance. I sent my parents to the one that is easier to access. Figured you and I are young. We can handle a challenge.”
“So we’re on our way to the sub-basements. Where to from there?”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we get there.” Sydney heard something crackle in her ear. “Vaughn?” she asked.
There was no response.
“Our ear pieces aren’t working,” Sark said as he realized that he couldn’t hear Vaughn either.
“It must be a security feature I didn’t know about. There must have been a frequency blocker somewhere on the way down to the sub-basements.”
“Will the feed come back when we reach the second sub-basement?”
“I don’t know,” Sydney admitted. Suddenly, she got a confused look on her face. “This elevator ride has taken an awful long time. A lot longer than I would have thought.”
Finally, the elevator doors slid open revealing a man with his back to them. Sydney recognized him immediately. “Oh no.”
“Miss Bristow, you haven’t forgotten me,” Simon Walker said as he turned around. Noting their bewildered faces, he added, “Don’t tell me you thought you were actually being sly. The Covenant has known you were here since the second you got into the elevator.”
Sark couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“What is so funny, Mr. Sark?” Simon asked.
“You are a bloody moron. That’s what is so funny.” Sark smirked at him. “We’ve been in this facility a lot longer than you think.”
“Oh. Good to know.” Simon motioned for a couple of the men who were standing off to the side. “Tie these two up. And do a good job about it.”
Sydney was pushed up against the wall by one of the men, and she could feel him wrapping some sort of rope tightly around her wrists. When she was turned back around, she saw they had done the same to Sark.
“Don’t you think you’re being a little overzealous in the tying?” Sydney asked. “I mean why don’t you just tie us back to back like they do in the movies and get it over with?”
“I like that suggestion,” Simon said with a devious grin. “Do it,” he ordered his men.
Sydney winced as her already rope burned hands were jarred. Within seconds, her tied up hands were tightly secured to Sark’s. The duo was ushered to a nearby cell where Simon said they should make themselves at home.
Sydney flinched as the door was slammed shut behind them. She waited a minute before muttering, “He really is a bloody moron. He actually captured us and then left us with an opportunity to form a plan and escape.” She tried to look over her shoulder at Sark. “The pack, Sark.”
“Do it,” he said forcefully.
Sydney took a deep breath. “I follow my instincts when I‘m on a mission, Sark. You know that.”
“What are you trying to say? And why are you trying to stall?”
I‘m not stalling,” Sydney said viciously. That was when Sark knew she was trying to tell him something extremely important. “Listen, I don’t think both you and I are going to make it to where Kaylee’s being held.”
“How the hell can you know that?” he practically screamed. Calming down considerably, he added, “You and I are the best spies this world has to offer right now. We’re both going to make it out of this one alive. And that’s my gut feeling.”
Sydney opened her mouth to say something else, but Sark interrupted her. “Listen, Bristow. We’re not going to die. Stop trying to stall. It’s time to use that nice pack that Marshall gave us.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. The hesitation was thick in her voice.
“Positive. We knew that this might happen when we were planning out this operation. I can take the pain if you can.”
“All right.” Sydney moved her hands, and consequently Sark’s, up to the middle of her back. She fumbled to lift her shirt up, and when she finally did, she was happy to still feel the small black pack secured tightly to her body. “Brace yourself.”
Sark felt a sharp pain in his back as Sydney unhooked the latch that was holding the CIA device to her body. It had specifically been designed as a last ditch effort to cut an agent’s bonds. Before giving it to Sydney, Marshall informed her that the pain would probably be a lot worse than she could imagine. He was quick to tell her to make sure she pointed the pack at the wall. The brunt of it would be absorbed, and it would decrease the pain inflicted upon her greatly. Tragically, Sydney wasn’t up against a wall. She was up against Sark.
The small blades that were as sharp as razors cut into Sark’s back and stayed there. Sydney ignored his growls of pain and lifted their arms up to where the blades were sticking in his back. She heard her partner give a small cry of pain as the movement shifted the blades slightly.
“Are you all right?” she whispered.
“I’m fine. Just get it over with.”
Sydney began to rub their bounded hands against the razor blades. Because of their position, it normally would have been hard to guess if the blades were even cutting the rope. However, she could feel them cutting through her hands and arms, so she figured that at least every once in a while they must be cutting through ropes.
Sark cried out a little in pain again, and Sydney realized that if she was cutting her hands and arms, she must have been cutting his as well.
Thankfully, the rope snapped, and she pulled away from his back. Turning around, she saw the extent of the damage and almost passed out. His whole back looked like it had been thrown through a grinder. She knew he would bear scars from this for the rest of his life.
“You did me a favor once,” Sydney said as she gently ran a hand over his face. He had fallen face down onto the floor when the rope broke. “I’m about to return it. And for that, I’m sorry.”
Sydney rammed her bloody right hand hard into Sark’s temple. He lost consciousness almost instantly. She got to work pulling out the razors from his back. When she got the first one out, she was glad that she had knocked him unconscious. The razor blades, so they could stick into a wall or other surface, had a rounded hook on one end. Sydney was almost afraid that she was doing more damage taking them out than what had happened when they had gone in.
She stopped a moment to get her bearings and then proceeded with her difficult task.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sark felt himself slowing pull his mind and body back to the real world. He realized that he was lying on his stomach on the floor of what was probably the same room that Walker had thrown him and Sydney in. He could feel the throbbing pain in his back and arms, but the only thought on his mind was why did she hit him. “Syd…” he mumbled.
“I’m right here, Sark.” He could feel her hand rub the back of his neck.
“Why the hell did you hit me?”
“Because of this.” Sydney lifted Sark up into a sitting position, careful of where she placed his back. She held up one of the razor blades for him to see.
“Oh,” he said. “Thanks.”
“Anytime you need it, you know I’ll be there to knock you unconscious.” Sydney looked him over. “Are you going to be all right?”
Sark tried to stand up and felt his head explode in pain. He winced and leaned back against the wall, but he didn’t sit back down again. “I’ll be okay in a moment. I can work through the pain.”
Sydney held out her left arm for Sark to lean into. “Someday you and I are going to live in a world where we don’t have to say we can work through the pain.”
“If we pull this off, it just may happen sooner or later.” Sydney helped him hobble over to the door. “Isn’t that door locked?” he asked.
“I utilized the time you spent unconscious. Did a little lock picking with my last birthday present from Marshall.” Sydney pulled out two of her bobby pins from her hair. Sark saw that they were cleverly disguised lock picks. “They come in handy.”
Sydney pushed the door open and helped Sark out of their temporary prison. By the time they had reached the end of the hallway, Sark had managed to push off of Sydney and start walking on his own. Granted he was still wobbling and had to stop a few times to lean against the wall, but he made it to the other end walking by himself.
He was thrown when Sydney stopped and threw her hand up to her right ear. “What’s wrong?”
“My ear piece is working again,” she said. “Vaughn, can you hear me?”
“Syd!” His voice was thick with worry. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, Sark and I are both fine.”
“You had me worried. The last time my comlink to you died, you disappeared for two years and both our lives went to hell.”
“Isn’t going to happen again,” she answered confidently. “Sark and I had a little run in with Simon Walker. He momentarily captured us, but you know there isn’t a prison that can hold me.”
“Great.”
Sark tried to figure out what was happening on the other half of Sydney’s conversation. Either his earpiece hadn’t gone back online or Sydney had hit him a lot harder than she intended and he was now deaf in one ear. He was going with the ear-piece-not-online theory.
Sydney turned and smiled at him after he heard her thank Vaughn.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Seems like my parents held up their end of the operation and then some. They made their way to the main computer and extracted as much information as possible. It was lucky I sent them in because Gray’s location was changed a few hours ago. He’s no longer being held with my sister.”
“We have to split up, Sydney. We don’t have time to go save one and then get the other.”
Sydney got an I-know-something-you-don’t-know smile on her face. “That won’t be a problem. Grayson was being held in the same hallway where the main computer terminal is positioned. My parents wiped the computer’s memory and picked him up on their way out of the building. All three of them are sitting with Weiss and Vaughn right now.”
“So our goal is half accomplished.”
“Sark, do you remember what I said about both of us not making it to Kaylee?” she asked hesitantly.
“You’re not getting all fatalistic on me, Bristow,” Sark said with fire in his eyes. “Not now, not ever. Both of us and Kaylee are going to make it out of this one alive.”
“Oh I know that,” she replied. “I was just trying to say earlier that I think one of us might have to hang back to create a distraction.”
“Why didn’t you just say that?”
Sydney smiled at him and began to explain where the computer had said Kaylee was being held. They weren’t that far from it. The couple rushed through the hallways, no longer concerned with keeping a low profile, and Sydney continued to inform Sark. Just as she was finishing telling him the codes that should open Kaylee’s prison door, they heard someone clear his throat behind them.
“Seems to me that this operation was a lot bigger than I thought,” Walker said. “Word is that Spy Mummy and Spy Daddy were here too.”
“Nice choice of words,” Sydney said with a smug smile. “They were here. They’re not anymore. Lucky for you, we still are. Two lefts and then a right, Sark.” Sydney winked at him.
He laughed and walked towards Simon. When he was shoulder to shoulder with him, he leaned over and whispered, “Hell hath no fury like a Bristow woman. I would wish you good luck because you’re probably going to need. But truth is I’ve always thought you were a prick. And you sort of pissed me off when you sent you sent your little woman to kidnap mine. So, I‘m going to do you a favor.”
Sark made a move to continue walking away from Simon but changed his mind. Instead he punched him hard in the face. He wasn’t surprised when Simon hit the floor and didn’t get up again.
“Sorry, Syd,” he apologized.
“I was really itching for a fight,” she replied.
“You’ll still get one,” said a voice from behind her. “And by the way, Mr. Sark, I’m not his little woman. It was the other way around.”
“Go. Now,” Sydney said harshly as she turned to face Anna. Sark obeyed her command and left her and Anna in a stare down.
Sydney stared Anna down as they began to circle around one another. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Anna said.
“I aim to please,” Sydney said as she took a halfhearted swing at Anna’s head. She wasn’t surprised to watch Anna duck out of the way in plenty of time. Hitting her wasn’t the goal right now. Sydney was focusing on sizing her up and deciding what it was going to take to win this fight.
“Syd, what’s going on?” Vaughn’s voice rang through her earpiece.
“Can’t talk right now. I’m getting reacquainted with an old friend. I’ll fill you in when I’ve kicked her ass.”
Taking full advantage of the distraction Vaughn caused, Anna kicked at Sydney and struck her square in the chin. Sydney was propelled back into the wall but swiftly recovered. She kicked Anna right back in the stomach.
“You really piss me off sometimes,” Sydney said as Anna shook off the blow.
“Same here.” Anna made a move to slam her fist into Sydney’s head. Sydney blocked her and knocked her feet out from under her at the same time.
“Bet that pissed you off,” she said as she backed up. She didn’t want to end this fight quickly. Anna need to stay occupied until she was sure Sark had had enough time to save her sister.
Anna glared as she stood up. She subtly reached into her pocket and grabbed something. With Sydney momentarily distracted by her thoughts, Anna was able to fling the small knife at her face.
Sydney felt a small pain on her right cheek and put her hand up to feel it. Her hand came away with blood on it. The wound wasn’t that deep, though. “Was that supposed to stop me?” she asked.
“No,” Anna replied. “Only slow you down.”
Sydney felt her head start to spin a little, and her body started to feel really heavy. “You drugged the tip of that knife? Nice touch.”
“I thought so,” Anna said as she punched Sydney a couple times. “It also conveniently severed the link to whomever you were talking with before.”
She held her hand up to her ear. The knife had nicked the part of the earpiece that was sticking out slightly from her ear. She couldn’t hear Vaughn’s reassuring voice anymore. Hopefully he would trust her to make it out of her alive. They were so close to accomplishing their objectives that she’d really hate to have it ruined now.
Sydney took a few more punches and then kicked her opponent in the side and used the momentum created by her kick to fling Anna into the cement wall. She heard the crunch of bones breaking and saw Anna wince in pain.
“I’ve been waiting to hear that sound since Mount Aconcagua.”
“Oh?” Anna said through her pain. “You didn’t appreciate when I kicked you up the ladder and left you for dead?”
“That was your mistake. You should have made sure I had stayed dead.” Sydney gave her a hard uppercut. “I have a bad habit of coming back from the dead. Ask everyone.” She threw another few punches before the effort of movement with the combination of whatever drug Anna had sent her way made her black out slightly. Seizing the moment of weakness, Anna kicked her effectively sending Sydney sailing into the wall.
She fell into a heap at the bottom of the wall. The blow had stunned her so much that she could only helplessly listen while Anna strolled over to where she was laying. She felt a hard tug on her hair as Anna grabbed her hair viciously and picked her up.
“You’re slipping,” Anna whispered in her face. She had Sydney pinned up against the wall and was holding her hands against her throat.
“Wait,” Sydney whispered in a small, defeated voice.
“Want to beg for mercy?” Anna asked, smirking slightly.
“No, I just wanted to tell you that we’re really sisters. Seems my father really got around back in the day.”
Anna looked at her in confusion. Sydney took the moment of opportunity to smile wickedly at her opponent right before she headbunted her as hard as she could. Anna collapsed into a pile, unconscious.
“Idiot,” she muttered. As she walked away from her fallen adversary, she called, “I learned that one from my sister. Remind me to thank her when I see her next.”
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sark ran through the halls trying to desperately remember if it was two rights and then a left or one right and then one left. Or maybe it was two lefts and then two rights. Normally, he would never make a mistake like forgetting directions in a mission. The possibility of what would happen if he screwed this up was overpowering all his senses, making him a lot worse at what he did.
Sighing, he hoped he remembered correctly and took the next left.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sydney made her way through the front lobby of the Inganno Corporation, exiting the same way she entered. If her mental concept of time was pretty accurate, she expected to see that everyone had made it to the van slightly. She had meant to defeat Anna in a little less time than it had taken. So that meant there was no way that Sark wouldn’t have rescued her sister already.
There were people running everywhere in the front lobby. “Guess Mom and Dad did an amazing job of screwing up their computer system,” she thought to herself. She tried to walk slowly and stay inconspicuous; though her battered and bruised body might give her away.
She noticed that there was a person standing in front of the main door with his arms crossed, scanning the crowd. The drug Anna has poisoned her with was still doing a job to her system so she was unable to focus on the person’s face. “That’s strange,” she thought to herself. “Everyone else is panicking, and this man is just standing calmly at the door. No care in the world. How the hell am I going to get him to move?”
“Ms. Bristow,” the man said turning to look at her. “Sydney.”
She still couldn’t make his face get into focus, but she would know that slimy voice anywhere.
“I should have known you’d have something to do with this, Sloane,” she hissed.
“You can stop trying to act tough, Sydney,” he said. “I know that Anna drugged you. Don’t try to pretend you’re in any condition to fit me.”
“But I am,” said a voice with a thick Irish accent that Sydney placed to her right. She saw this second person, or rather blob, hit Sloane squarely in the jaw. As soon as he hit the floor, her rescuer was slapping a pair of handcuffs onto his arm.
“Hello, Syd,” the man said.
“Who are you?” she squinted her eyes but the face didn’t come into focus any better.
“You don’t recognize my voice?” the man asked. “We worked together for two years to bring down the Covenant.” The man paused. “If I tell you, will you promise not to hit me?”
“I promise. I won’t hit you until you have time to explain why I would want to hit you.”
“My name’s Colin Meyer. But you know me better under another alias. Simon Walker.”
Chapters 62 through 65
“Where do we begin?” Sydney asked.
“Irina, Sark, and I have been discussing it,” Jack said. “We believe Anna Espinosa to be working for the Covenant. Sark received an offer of employment from them a few weeks ago.”
“You didn’t mention that to me,” Sydney said narrowing her eyes.
“I didn’t think it was important,” Sark replied. “I would have told you eventually, Sydney. You know that.”
“He mentions things to her?” Weiss whispered to Vaughn. “When did that happen?”
Weiss obviously wasn’t whispering soft enough because Sydney could hear him clearly. “Eric, Sark’s first name is Andrew.” She almost laughed at the shocked look on his face as his mouth dropped open. “He’s the man I’ve been running off to see for the past few months. And no, he’s not my boyfriend. Though that was a good guess on your part.”
Weiss’s mouth began to open and close as he struggled to form a reaction.
“Can we move on?” Irina asked impatiently.
“I received a job offer from the Covenant. I always intended to turn them down. I’ve gotten close to Sydney these past few months. Together, she and I deduced what they had done to her for the two years she was missing. I would never have accepted their offer of employment if it weren’t in both of our best interests. I may look and act like a monster in most of your opinions, but I could never stoop to such lows as the Covenant does. Believe that.”
“So how is this going to help us?” Vaughn asked.
“Sark is going to get in contact with the Covenant and accept their invitation. He is going to explain to them that he knows they have Kaylee and Grayson,” Jack informed them.
“I’m going to tell them that I’ll do whatever they say as long as they let me see Kaylee and my son.”
“Grayson is your kid?” Marshall practically shrieked. He noticed that no one else was having the same reaction. “And I was the only one who didn’t know about this. Typical. Leave the lowly tech guy out of all the important classified information.”
“Hey, I didn’t know about it before today either,” Sark said.
“It was all in Gray’s best interest,” Will said softly. “Kaylee wanted to decide if she was going to let you back into her life before she told you that he was your son. She didn’t want to have to go through all of that if she wasn’t even going to allow you to see him.”
“Understandable.” Sark did, in fact, understand the logic behind it, but that didn’t mean it still didn’t hurt to know that he might have never realized Grayson was his son. His child may have grown up without even knowing that his father was alive.
“She made her decision, though. Right before Anna interrupted us at the house. She was going to let you back in,” Will continued.
Sark nodded his appreciation for Will’s confession. He knew that it was hard for Will to be so civil towards him after their past history.
“Back to the plan,” Sydney said. “I don’t think that the whole Sark joining the Covenant thing is going to work. They won’t believe that he would change his loyalties that easily. Even if he can use his skills at lying to convince them, it would take him forever to learn the layouts of the building. I honestly think we don’t have that long a time to get Kaylee and Grayson out of there. Besides, we could be sacrificing one of the best assets we have, and I refuse to do that.”
“What other options do we have, Sydney?” Irina asked.
“I used to be the best agent the Covenant had ever seen. That’s why they wanted me so bad. They went to enormous lengths just to bring me to their side. Who’s to say that I don’t still have that agent somewhere inside me? I think that I have knowledge of the facilities the Covenant has. The brainwashing I had performed on myself doesn’t seem to be as solid as I would have liked it to have been at one time.”
“How is this going to help us?” Jack asked.
“I think they’re holding Kaylee at their facility in Rome. I was based there for the majority of the time I worked for the Covenant. The floor plans are running through my brain as we speak. I can see the corridors and all the possible exits. I can tell you who works in what office. Their whole operation in Rome is like an open book to me. This whole time, the CIA has had an inside source to the Covenant, but because of the strength and determination most of you present, they haven’t utilized me.”
“It would have destroyed you if the CIA had pushed you for information,” Vaughn reminded her. “We all knew that.”
“And I’m glad they didn’t. Because I avoided the trauma of that, I can remember things a lot clearer than I would have ever expected.”
“So you’re proposing what exactly?” Sark asked.
“I’m proposing we treat this like a normal mission. You, me, my mother, and my father go in. We’re four of the best agents out there. There’s no way that the Covenant can outsmart and outfight all four of us if we work together. And we have two of the best handlers the CIA has to offer, who both happen to be field trained.” Sydney smiled at Vaughn and Weiss. “They can serve as our back-up. Marshall here will stay with them wherever I have our base set up. He can do some on spot tech work if we need him to. Will, as long as the hospital gives you leave, you can come with us to Rome. I don’t know how much help you’ll be, but I know you want to be there.”
“Thank you, Sydney.” Will smiled at her.
“How can you be so sure that Kaylee is in Rome?” Irina asked. “I don’t really doubt your instinct, but if you’re wrong… If she isn’t there, we’ve wasted probably the only window of opportunity we have.”
“She’s in Rome. Trust me. Simon Walker would never have given up the location of my sister to the other organizations. It’s a known fact that he is a member of the Covenant. The Covenant would never let another organization get the upper hand on them.” Sydney looked at her father. “That is why I also know that Anna Espinosa is working with the Covenant. The purpose of Simon Walker’s gathering was to make every organization think that the Covenant had nothing to do with Kaylee and Grayson’s kidnapping. He was there to give them a solid alibi. To keep the CIA from focusing on them when they realized that the two of them had gone missing. But the Covenant had absolutely everything to do with it. I saw Walker’s face when Anna burst through the window and snatched the paper out of his hands.”
“He was expecting it,” Sark said as realization dawned on his face. “He knew she was going to be there. He knew that she was going to get to him before we did.”
“He turned the lights off in the building to help her escape,” Sydney added. “Simon Walker is in Rome as we speak, I know it. It was his base of operations just as it was mine. Since he is so deep in this whole situation, they wouldn’t take Kaylee to another facility. She’s in Rome. So are Simon and Anna.”
“Sounds convincing enough,” Weiss said. “When do we leave?”
“Now,” Will said. “The doctor told me that I could check myself out of the hospital as soon as I wanted. I asked him. He said he didn’t recommend it, but he couldn’t keep me here. I just need to sign the papers and we’re gone.”
“Good,” Sydney said standing up. She walked over to Will. “Will you do me a favor?”
“Anything, Syd.”
She slipped the engagement ring off of her finger. “Hold this for me until I come back with my sister and nephew.”
“Sure thing,” Will said taking the ring. He looked over at Sark. “I’ve been holding another engagement ring for over two years now. Kaylee couldn’t stand the sight of it, and she told me to get rid of it. But I couldn’t. I knew someday she’d regret losing the one thing she cherished the most besides her son.” He paused and then corrected himself. “Besides her son and you. I’ll hold that ring until you come back. Then I think you should give it to her. She wants it back.”
Sark nodded at Will. “Thank you.”
“Let’s go,” Sydney said as she pushed Will’s wheelchair towards the door. “We have two people who are counting on us to find them.”
“Vaughn, are you there?” Sydney said softly as she and Sark made their way into what looked like a big corporate research center. In reality, it was an elaborate cover-up for the Covenant’s main facility in Rome. The two of them were posing as a husband and wife team of engineers who were interesting in merging their small business with that of the Inganno Corporation.
“I can hear you, Syd,” Vaughn’s voice echoed back in her ear. “Too bad I can’t see you. I hear the clothes your mother found you two are quite a sight.”
“That’s an understatement.” Sydney looked down at herself. She was wearing an extremely sharp Dolce & Gabbana business suit, which consisted of black pants, a black halter dress, and a black jacket. Her mother had found her an amazing short red wig and a pair of transparent red sunglasses. It made Sydney look like she was indeed a part owner of an incredibly successful engineering corporation.
Her mother had outfitted Sark in the same fashion. He was wearing a Versace black turtleneck, knee-length duster, and black pants. The best part, in Sydney’s opinion, was the fact that he had agreed to let her spike his hair and highlight the tips a bright blue. His whole image was a complete contradiction, a clash of punk and classy businessman.
“Are you ready, darling?” Sydney asked as she slipped her hand into Sark’s.
“Let’s do this,” he said. Not missing a beat, he continued quietly so that only Sydney could hear him, “I know we’re married and all. But I just want you to know that I plan on having an affair with your little sister.”
“And I’m going to have one with our co-worker,” Sydney said back with a little giggle. “So we’re even.” She knew that it might not be the most appropriate way to act, joking around like this when her sister and nephew were kidnapped. But she also had come to realize that Sark’s strongest defense mechanisms were his complete indifference and his humor.
The couple walked hand and hand into the lobby of the Inganno Corporation. Sydney drew a paper out from her pocket and handed it to the receptionist. “James and Ripley Taylor here to see Mr. Mantovini,” she said in a British accent.
Sydney had timed their entrance so that the receptionist was on the phone with a rather important client when she handed her the paper. Since the receptionist was so distracted, she just mouthed the words seventh floor to them and pointed in the general direction of the elevators.
“Thank you,” Sark said. He placed his hand on the small of Sydney’s back and directed her to the elevators.
Luckily, no one else was around so they were able to get the whole elevator to themselves. Sydney pressed the seventh floor button. As soon as they had reached the fifth floor, Sark stretched around Sydney to press the emergency stop button. Then, he dug into his pocket and pulled out a small disc shaped object. He placed it on the receiver of the emergency phone that was in the elevator.
“Marshall, can you hear my voice?” Sark asked into the newly place disc and phone receiver.
“I can hear you loud and clear.” Marshall had programmed the disc to allow him to hear and participate in the conversations that occurred on the emergency phone. While Sydney and Sark were elsewhere, he was using some voice software he had picked up from one of his tech contacts to impersonate both of their voices and British accents. They wanted the Covenant to think that James and Ripley Taylor were stuck in the elevator for as long as they could.
Sydney threw the bag she was using as a purse on the ground and began to rifle through it. She pulled out a few canisters and handed them to Sark. Next she removed a small black pack. She handed it to Sark, lifted up her shirt, and turned her back to him. He fixed it onto her back snuggly and fastened the two Velcro strips securely over her abdomen.
Nodding at her, Sark crouched down slightly and put his hands together into a foothold. Sydney used that as leverage and pushed the emergency hatch of the elevator open. She pulled herself up on top of the elevator and then gave Sark a hand in joining her.
“There’s the ladder I remembered. The Covenant has these in all their facilities’ elevator shafts. It’s a defensive precaution in case someone cuts the facility’s power. The agents stuck in the elevators always has an escape route,” she explained.
Both of them started to climb the ladder up until Sydney signaled down to Sark, who was below her, that they had reached their destination. Sark was surprised to see Sydney suddenly disappear from view completely. When he had climbed the ladder up to the level she had disappeared at, he realized that there was a door size opening leading into a hallway.
“This place is straight out of a high-tech, sci-fi movie,” Sydney said holding out her hand to him. “There are hallways that end in dead drops and doors that lead nowhere. It’s one of the many safety measures. It’s rather suspicious when someone who’s trying to pretend they are an agent of the Covenant can’t make their way around the building or keeps opening doors that any agent would know leads nowhere.”
“Where are we?” he asked as they started walking down the hallway.
“We’re on the ninth floor. The Inganno Corporation’s false offices end on the eighth. We’re in the heart of the Covenant’s operation. Try to look evil. We need to blend in.”
“What are we doing here?” he asked.
“I’ll explain in just a moment.” Sydney stopped at an office door. She stared at the digital keypad for a moment and then punched in seven numbers. The door unlocked with a small beep from the keypad. “You think they’d change the codes when they lose one of their brainwashed agents.”
Sark stared at the rather normal looking office. “Where are we now?”
“This is Simon Walker’s office,” Sydney said with a grin. “We’re here to hack into the Covenant’s mainframe and figure out where they’re holding Kaylee and Gray.”
Sark nodded his approval and watched Sydney begin to type rapidly on the laptop that was sitting open on the desk. She began to explain what she was doing. “I figure that my password into the mainframe system won’t still be good so I’m just trying to hack a random agent’s password. Once I have that I’ll log in as them. Hopefully, he or she will have a high enough clearance for me to get the information we want.”
“There,” Sark said pointing to the right hand corner of the screen. “Looks like Lauren had access to this server. It’s only right for you to use her as a gateway into the system. Then the Covenant will think that she’s betrayed them to the CIA.”
“You’re right. It’s only fitting.” Sydney typed silently for a few more minutes. “Damn,” she hissed.
“What’s the problem?” rang Vaughn’s voice in her ear.
“I see the location that would be my best guess at where they’re holding Kaylee and Gray. I wasn’t expecting to find any information that completely spelled it out. The Covenant wouldn’t be that sloppy, no matter how confident they are getting. However, it looks like the Covenant’s system can’t be wiped from one of their secondary terminals.” Part of their plan was to distract a good portion of the Covenant’s operatives present at the facility by wiping clean the whole computer system. On their flight over to Rome, Will had helped Marshall create a rather nasty virus to do the job.
“Do you have a backup plan?” Sark asked her.
“Yes, I think I do.” Sydney began to type on the computer again. “Vaughn? I need you to tell my mother and father to get suited up. I’m sending you a location of where I want them to go. I need them in this building if we’re going to be able to pull this whole rescue mission off. Sark and I will meet them at the provided location. Get them wired up with Weiss. He’s going to have to monitor their progress while you stick with Sark and me.”
“Got it, Sydney,” Vaughn answered.
Sydney shut the laptop and turned to Sark. “Looks like we need to get back down to the first floor.”
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sark was amazed at the massive amount of knowledge Sydney had begun to recall about the Covenant and their operations. When they left Simon Walker’s office, she had quickly led him down a few corridors to a door that opened right into a staircase. She had made some crack about the Covenant being a fan of M.C. Escher, and then they were rushing down eight flights of stairs.
Before she opened the door that would lead them out to the hallways of the first floor, she turned to Sark, “We’re going to have to blend in with everything around us. The Covenant cannot realize that you and I are in this building.”
“Understood,” Sark said with a curt nod.
Sydney walked through the door and began to blend herself into the steady stream of people walking up and down the hallway. Sark waited a moment and then followed her.
They walked for about five minutes, just following the stream of people, before Sark saw Sydney suddenly dart into a room. He followed her lead and found himself in what appeared to be a test site for some biological weapon.
“These are some of the labs the Covenant keeps up to enforce their cover story. They actually have been doing some good work with genetically altered foods,” Sydney explained. She walked to the back of the lab to a door that was marked ‘Emergency Door. Alarm will sound if opened.’
“Is it wise to open that?” Sark asked as Sydney pushed on the handle. No alarms rang.
“They like to keep their employees locked up inside the building. It’s just a scare tactic.” She peered out the door she had just cracked slightly. She could see her mother and father making their way over. “They’re out there.”
Sark grabbed a screwdriver off of the table next to him and put it into the crack of the door. “Let’s step back. If we’re not in the line of sight, it should make their entrance into the facility look a little less conspicuous.”
They stepped over to the side and a minute later, Jack and Irina were standing next to them.
“Explain what you need us to do,” Irina said smiling at her daughter.
“Sark and I don’t have time to create our own distraction and make it down to the second sub-basement to free Kaylee and Grayson. So we need you to go down to the first sub-basement. When you get there, there should be a room with the main Covenant computer. I sent Vaughn a map of the sub-basement I pulled off Walker’s laptop, the codes that should open the door, and the information you‘ll need to log on to the system. You’ll probably have to deal with a few armed guards. That shouldn’t be that much of a problem. First I want you to download as much information as you can off of the Covenant computer. We’re in a very opportune position, and I won’t leave until we’ve utilized it. Only after that do I want you two to wipe the system like Sark and I originally intended to do. Once that’s done, unless Weiss tells you otherwise, get as far away from the facility as you can.”
Jack nodded at his daughter and turned to leave. Irina didn’t follow him. Instead she stepped closer to her daughter and looked closely into her eyes. “You remind me of myself, Sydney.”
“As much as I hate to admit it, I am your daughter,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Everything I ever did was to keep you safe,” Irina continued. “To teach you the skills I knew you need to survive. I hope that someday you can forgive me for what I’ve done.”
Irina turned and left Sydney staring at her back as she walked away.
“Let’s go,” Sark said gently touching Sydney’s shoulder. “We have a job to do. You can figure out Irina later.”
Sydney nodded at him but still kept that far off look on her face. Sark grasped her hand and practically dragged her out of the room. “We’re out in the open now, Syd. I need you to stay with me.”
“Okay.” She scrunched her face up in concentration. “This way.”
She led him back to the elevator lobby they had originally been in the first time they were on this floor. Instead of pushing a button and waiting for any of the elevators, she opened a door marked Maintenance. What was inside didn’t have anything to do with maintenance.
The room was about the size of a phone booth. Straight in front of them were an elevator door and a keypad. Sydney punched in some numbers swiftly, and the door slid open.
“Explain,” Sark said as they stepped into the elevator.
“The sub-basements are the location of most of the top secret actions of the Covenant. It makes them incredibly hard to get to. This is the more obscure entrance. I sent my parents to the one that is easier to access. Figured you and I are young. We can handle a challenge.”
“So we’re on our way to the sub-basements. Where to from there?”
“Let’s cross that bridge when we get there.” Sydney heard something crackle in her ear. “Vaughn?” she asked.
There was no response.
“Our ear pieces aren’t working,” Sark said as he realized that he couldn’t hear Vaughn either.
“It must be a security feature I didn’t know about. There must have been a frequency blocker somewhere on the way down to the sub-basements.”
“Will the feed come back when we reach the second sub-basement?”
“I don’t know,” Sydney admitted. Suddenly, she got a confused look on her face. “This elevator ride has taken an awful long time. A lot longer than I would have thought.”
Finally, the elevator doors slid open revealing a man with his back to them. Sydney recognized him immediately. “Oh no.”
“Miss Bristow, you haven’t forgotten me,” Simon Walker said as he turned around. Noting their bewildered faces, he added, “Don’t tell me you thought you were actually being sly. The Covenant has known you were here since the second you got into the elevator.”
Sark couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
“What is so funny, Mr. Sark?” Simon asked.
“You are a bloody moron. That’s what is so funny.” Sark smirked at him. “We’ve been in this facility a lot longer than you think.”
“Oh. Good to know.” Simon motioned for a couple of the men who were standing off to the side. “Tie these two up. And do a good job about it.”
Sydney was pushed up against the wall by one of the men, and she could feel him wrapping some sort of rope tightly around her wrists. When she was turned back around, she saw they had done the same to Sark.
“Don’t you think you’re being a little overzealous in the tying?” Sydney asked. “I mean why don’t you just tie us back to back like they do in the movies and get it over with?”
“I like that suggestion,” Simon said with a devious grin. “Do it,” he ordered his men.
Sydney winced as her already rope burned hands were jarred. Within seconds, her tied up hands were tightly secured to Sark’s. The duo was ushered to a nearby cell where Simon said they should make themselves at home.
Sydney flinched as the door was slammed shut behind them. She waited a minute before muttering, “He really is a bloody moron. He actually captured us and then left us with an opportunity to form a plan and escape.” She tried to look over her shoulder at Sark. “The pack, Sark.”
“Do it,” he said forcefully.
Sydney took a deep breath. “I follow my instincts when I‘m on a mission, Sark. You know that.”
“What are you trying to say? And why are you trying to stall?”
I‘m not stalling,” Sydney said viciously. That was when Sark knew she was trying to tell him something extremely important. “Listen, I don’t think both you and I are going to make it to where Kaylee’s being held.”
“How the hell can you know that?” he practically screamed. Calming down considerably, he added, “You and I are the best spies this world has to offer right now. We’re both going to make it out of this one alive. And that’s my gut feeling.”
Sydney opened her mouth to say something else, but Sark interrupted her. “Listen, Bristow. We’re not going to die. Stop trying to stall. It’s time to use that nice pack that Marshall gave us.”
“Are you sure?” she asked. The hesitation was thick in her voice.
“Positive. We knew that this might happen when we were planning out this operation. I can take the pain if you can.”
“All right.” Sydney moved her hands, and consequently Sark’s, up to the middle of her back. She fumbled to lift her shirt up, and when she finally did, she was happy to still feel the small black pack secured tightly to her body. “Brace yourself.”
Sark felt a sharp pain in his back as Sydney unhooked the latch that was holding the CIA device to her body. It had specifically been designed as a last ditch effort to cut an agent’s bonds. Before giving it to Sydney, Marshall informed her that the pain would probably be a lot worse than she could imagine. He was quick to tell her to make sure she pointed the pack at the wall. The brunt of it would be absorbed, and it would decrease the pain inflicted upon her greatly. Tragically, Sydney wasn’t up against a wall. She was up against Sark.
The small blades that were as sharp as razors cut into Sark’s back and stayed there. Sydney ignored his growls of pain and lifted their arms up to where the blades were sticking in his back. She heard her partner give a small cry of pain as the movement shifted the blades slightly.
“Are you all right?” she whispered.
“I’m fine. Just get it over with.”
Sydney began to rub their bounded hands against the razor blades. Because of their position, it normally would have been hard to guess if the blades were even cutting the rope. However, she could feel them cutting through her hands and arms, so she figured that at least every once in a while they must be cutting through ropes.
Sark cried out a little in pain again, and Sydney realized that if she was cutting her hands and arms, she must have been cutting his as well.
Thankfully, the rope snapped, and she pulled away from his back. Turning around, she saw the extent of the damage and almost passed out. His whole back looked like it had been thrown through a grinder. She knew he would bear scars from this for the rest of his life.
“You did me a favor once,” Sydney said as she gently ran a hand over his face. He had fallen face down onto the floor when the rope broke. “I’m about to return it. And for that, I’m sorry.”
Sydney rammed her bloody right hand hard into Sark’s temple. He lost consciousness almost instantly. She got to work pulling out the razors from his back. When she got the first one out, she was glad that she had knocked him unconscious. The razor blades, so they could stick into a wall or other surface, had a rounded hook on one end. Sydney was almost afraid that she was doing more damage taking them out than what had happened when they had gone in.
She stopped a moment to get her bearings and then proceeded with her difficult task.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sark felt himself slowing pull his mind and body back to the real world. He realized that he was lying on his stomach on the floor of what was probably the same room that Walker had thrown him and Sydney in. He could feel the throbbing pain in his back and arms, but the only thought on his mind was why did she hit him. “Syd…” he mumbled.
“I’m right here, Sark.” He could feel her hand rub the back of his neck.
“Why the hell did you hit me?”
“Because of this.” Sydney lifted Sark up into a sitting position, careful of where she placed his back. She held up one of the razor blades for him to see.
“Oh,” he said. “Thanks.”
“Anytime you need it, you know I’ll be there to knock you unconscious.” Sydney looked him over. “Are you going to be all right?”
Sark tried to stand up and felt his head explode in pain. He winced and leaned back against the wall, but he didn’t sit back down again. “I’ll be okay in a moment. I can work through the pain.”
Sydney held out her left arm for Sark to lean into. “Someday you and I are going to live in a world where we don’t have to say we can work through the pain.”
“If we pull this off, it just may happen sooner or later.” Sydney helped him hobble over to the door. “Isn’t that door locked?” he asked.
“I utilized the time you spent unconscious. Did a little lock picking with my last birthday present from Marshall.” Sydney pulled out two of her bobby pins from her hair. Sark saw that they were cleverly disguised lock picks. “They come in handy.”
Sydney pushed the door open and helped Sark out of their temporary prison. By the time they had reached the end of the hallway, Sark had managed to push off of Sydney and start walking on his own. Granted he was still wobbling and had to stop a few times to lean against the wall, but he made it to the other end walking by himself.
He was thrown when Sydney stopped and threw her hand up to her right ear. “What’s wrong?”
“My ear piece is working again,” she said. “Vaughn, can you hear me?”
“Syd!” His voice was thick with worry. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah, Sark and I are both fine.”
“You had me worried. The last time my comlink to you died, you disappeared for two years and both our lives went to hell.”
“Isn’t going to happen again,” she answered confidently. “Sark and I had a little run in with Simon Walker. He momentarily captured us, but you know there isn’t a prison that can hold me.”
“Great.”
Sark tried to figure out what was happening on the other half of Sydney’s conversation. Either his earpiece hadn’t gone back online or Sydney had hit him a lot harder than she intended and he was now deaf in one ear. He was going with the ear-piece-not-online theory.
Sydney turned and smiled at him after he heard her thank Vaughn.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“Seems like my parents held up their end of the operation and then some. They made their way to the main computer and extracted as much information as possible. It was lucky I sent them in because Gray’s location was changed a few hours ago. He’s no longer being held with my sister.”
“We have to split up, Sydney. We don’t have time to go save one and then get the other.”
Sydney got an I-know-something-you-don’t-know smile on her face. “That won’t be a problem. Grayson was being held in the same hallway where the main computer terminal is positioned. My parents wiped the computer’s memory and picked him up on their way out of the building. All three of them are sitting with Weiss and Vaughn right now.”
“So our goal is half accomplished.”
“Sark, do you remember what I said about both of us not making it to Kaylee?” she asked hesitantly.
“You’re not getting all fatalistic on me, Bristow,” Sark said with fire in his eyes. “Not now, not ever. Both of us and Kaylee are going to make it out of this one alive.”
“Oh I know that,” she replied. “I was just trying to say earlier that I think one of us might have to hang back to create a distraction.”
“Why didn’t you just say that?”
Sydney smiled at him and began to explain where the computer had said Kaylee was being held. They weren’t that far from it. The couple rushed through the hallways, no longer concerned with keeping a low profile, and Sydney continued to inform Sark. Just as she was finishing telling him the codes that should open Kaylee’s prison door, they heard someone clear his throat behind them.
“Seems to me that this operation was a lot bigger than I thought,” Walker said. “Word is that Spy Mummy and Spy Daddy were here too.”
“Nice choice of words,” Sydney said with a smug smile. “They were here. They’re not anymore. Lucky for you, we still are. Two lefts and then a right, Sark.” Sydney winked at him.
He laughed and walked towards Simon. When he was shoulder to shoulder with him, he leaned over and whispered, “Hell hath no fury like a Bristow woman. I would wish you good luck because you’re probably going to need. But truth is I’ve always thought you were a prick. And you sort of pissed me off when you sent you sent your little woman to kidnap mine. So, I‘m going to do you a favor.”
Sark made a move to continue walking away from Simon but changed his mind. Instead he punched him hard in the face. He wasn’t surprised when Simon hit the floor and didn’t get up again.
“Sorry, Syd,” he apologized.
“I was really itching for a fight,” she replied.
“You’ll still get one,” said a voice from behind her. “And by the way, Mr. Sark, I’m not his little woman. It was the other way around.”
“Go. Now,” Sydney said harshly as she turned to face Anna. Sark obeyed her command and left her and Anna in a stare down.
Sydney stared Anna down as they began to circle around one another. “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Anna said.
“I aim to please,” Sydney said as she took a halfhearted swing at Anna’s head. She wasn’t surprised to watch Anna duck out of the way in plenty of time. Hitting her wasn’t the goal right now. Sydney was focusing on sizing her up and deciding what it was going to take to win this fight.
“Syd, what’s going on?” Vaughn’s voice rang through her earpiece.
“Can’t talk right now. I’m getting reacquainted with an old friend. I’ll fill you in when I’ve kicked her ass.”
Taking full advantage of the distraction Vaughn caused, Anna kicked at Sydney and struck her square in the chin. Sydney was propelled back into the wall but swiftly recovered. She kicked Anna right back in the stomach.
“You really piss me off sometimes,” Sydney said as Anna shook off the blow.
“Same here.” Anna made a move to slam her fist into Sydney’s head. Sydney blocked her and knocked her feet out from under her at the same time.
“Bet that pissed you off,” she said as she backed up. She didn’t want to end this fight quickly. Anna need to stay occupied until she was sure Sark had had enough time to save her sister.
Anna glared as she stood up. She subtly reached into her pocket and grabbed something. With Sydney momentarily distracted by her thoughts, Anna was able to fling the small knife at her face.
Sydney felt a small pain on her right cheek and put her hand up to feel it. Her hand came away with blood on it. The wound wasn’t that deep, though. “Was that supposed to stop me?” she asked.
“No,” Anna replied. “Only slow you down.”
Sydney felt her head start to spin a little, and her body started to feel really heavy. “You drugged the tip of that knife? Nice touch.”
“I thought so,” Anna said as she punched Sydney a couple times. “It also conveniently severed the link to whomever you were talking with before.”
She held her hand up to her ear. The knife had nicked the part of the earpiece that was sticking out slightly from her ear. She couldn’t hear Vaughn’s reassuring voice anymore. Hopefully he would trust her to make it out of her alive. They were so close to accomplishing their objectives that she’d really hate to have it ruined now.
Sydney took a few more punches and then kicked her opponent in the side and used the momentum created by her kick to fling Anna into the cement wall. She heard the crunch of bones breaking and saw Anna wince in pain.
“I’ve been waiting to hear that sound since Mount Aconcagua.”
“Oh?” Anna said through her pain. “You didn’t appreciate when I kicked you up the ladder and left you for dead?”
“That was your mistake. You should have made sure I had stayed dead.” Sydney gave her a hard uppercut. “I have a bad habit of coming back from the dead. Ask everyone.” She threw another few punches before the effort of movement with the combination of whatever drug Anna had sent her way made her black out slightly. Seizing the moment of weakness, Anna kicked her effectively sending Sydney sailing into the wall.
She fell into a heap at the bottom of the wall. The blow had stunned her so much that she could only helplessly listen while Anna strolled over to where she was laying. She felt a hard tug on her hair as Anna grabbed her hair viciously and picked her up.
“You’re slipping,” Anna whispered in her face. She had Sydney pinned up against the wall and was holding her hands against her throat.
“Wait,” Sydney whispered in a small, defeated voice.
“Want to beg for mercy?” Anna asked, smirking slightly.
“No, I just wanted to tell you that we’re really sisters. Seems my father really got around back in the day.”
Anna looked at her in confusion. Sydney took the moment of opportunity to smile wickedly at her opponent right before she headbunted her as hard as she could. Anna collapsed into a pile, unconscious.
“Idiot,” she muttered. As she walked away from her fallen adversary, she called, “I learned that one from my sister. Remind me to thank her when I see her next.”
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sark ran through the halls trying to desperately remember if it was two rights and then a left or one right and then one left. Or maybe it was two lefts and then two rights. Normally, he would never make a mistake like forgetting directions in a mission. The possibility of what would happen if he screwed this up was overpowering all his senses, making him a lot worse at what he did.
Sighing, he hoped he remembered correctly and took the next left.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Sydney made her way through the front lobby of the Inganno Corporation, exiting the same way she entered. If her mental concept of time was pretty accurate, she expected to see that everyone had made it to the van slightly. She had meant to defeat Anna in a little less time than it had taken. So that meant there was no way that Sark wouldn’t have rescued her sister already.
There were people running everywhere in the front lobby. “Guess Mom and Dad did an amazing job of screwing up their computer system,” she thought to herself. She tried to walk slowly and stay inconspicuous; though her battered and bruised body might give her away.
She noticed that there was a person standing in front of the main door with his arms crossed, scanning the crowd. The drug Anna has poisoned her with was still doing a job to her system so she was unable to focus on the person’s face. “That’s strange,” she thought to herself. “Everyone else is panicking, and this man is just standing calmly at the door. No care in the world. How the hell am I going to get him to move?”
“Ms. Bristow,” the man said turning to look at her. “Sydney.”
She still couldn’t make his face get into focus, but she would know that slimy voice anywhere.
“I should have known you’d have something to do with this, Sloane,” she hissed.
“You can stop trying to act tough, Sydney,” he said. “I know that Anna drugged you. Don’t try to pretend you’re in any condition to fit me.”
“But I am,” said a voice with a thick Irish accent that Sydney placed to her right. She saw this second person, or rather blob, hit Sloane squarely in the jaw. As soon as he hit the floor, her rescuer was slapping a pair of handcuffs onto his arm.
“Hello, Syd,” the man said.
“Who are you?” she squinted her eyes but the face didn’t come into focus any better.
“You don’t recognize my voice?” the man asked. “We worked together for two years to bring down the Covenant.” The man paused. “If I tell you, will you promise not to hit me?”
“I promise. I won’t hit you until you have time to explain why I would want to hit you.”
“My name’s Colin Meyer. But you know me better under another alias. Simon Walker.”
