Sydney groaned as the alarm on the table next to her began ringing loudly. She was way too tired to get up and save the country for another day. Six straight months of having that be on her agenda every single day had finally gotten to her. She just wanted to sleep a full night for just once in her life.
"I am not getting up," she grumbled just loud enough so that the man next to her could hear.
"You have to get up, Syd. Will needs you to talk him through his mission today," Sark said, reaching out to gently touch her belly. "You and I both know if you don't, Tippin's liable to get himself killed."
She grunted roughly and did her best to sit up. "I'm getting a little tired of this rivalry you and Will have going. You both play for the same side now. Grow up and accept the fact that if things had started out differently, you two would have been practically best friends because you're so damn similar!"
Sark sat up in bed. "Are you mad at me or is that just the hormones talking?"
"You better watch what you say," she said, glaring at him. "It might be a little too early to be waking up, but it's never too early for me to launch into a speech about what you did to me." She pointed to her stomach for emphasis.
"How is little Sydney doing?" he asked while standing up and slipping on a pair of boxer shorts.
"What makes you so sure our baby is a girl?"
"I don't know." He shrugged his shoulders. "Isn't there some sort of prophecy saying that the first child of the almighty woman on Page 47 is to be made in her vision? To me, that screams daughter."
"Let's pray to god that our days of dealing with prophecies are over. We'll have enough on our plates just trying to keep this kid from following her mommy and daddy's footsteps."
"You don't want her becoming a spy?" Sydney shot him a look that made him pause in his attempts to get dressed and burst out laughing. "I take that as a no then."
"Our daughter should not be subjected to the horrors that we've had to go through just to have semi-normal lives. Now get up. Tippin's waiting."
Sydney groaned and walked over to the bathroom. "I thought there was something in our deal about not having to work if we didn't want to."
"Your mother reminds both of us constantly that she only agreed to not send us out on missions if we didn't approve. We didn't throw in a clause about assignments that required us to stay in. It should have been obvious when Irina agreed so quickly to our conditions that she already knew a few loopholes to exploit."
After leaving the bathroom, Sydney grabbed an earpiece off of a dresser and flicked it on. "Connect me to the channel Agent Three is operating on."
A short wait and a click later, she heard Will's voice coming back at her. "So, you finally got up, huh?"
"Sorry. I'm pregnant."
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
"Where are you, Will? I didn't even remember you were on assignment until my husband used you as a reason to get me out of bed."
"Algeria. I'm in the airport waiting to board a plane back to the States."
"I thought I was supposed to be guiding you through a mission, not filling up your layover time at an airport." Sydney noticed Sark stiffen at her words and look her way. This was not the standard procedure when either one of them guided another agent through tough situations that require aide from an outside source. She tried not to focus on his reaction but gave her undivided attention to Will. Something was not right.
"The information practically fell into my lap when I got off the plane. Which of course made me leery of the whole operation. So I'm headed home as soon as I can get a flight back to the States."
"What did you find?"
"This channel is not secure," he said bluntly.
"What are you talking about? My mother personally set up this communication system. It's impenetrable, and if she knew you thought otherwise, you wouldn't have a job."
"Sydney, what I found out is too important to chance that there might even be the slightest leak. It's the kind of news you should be used to hearing by now, though. If your mother knew that I was spouting out that kind of intel over any sort of outside connection, then she'd definitely fire me."
"Okay. So when should we expect you at the airport?"
"In about ten hours. I need someone to be there to greet me in case I have followers."
"I can send Sark."
"I know you can. But I think you should be the one."
"This sounds like a set-up, and I'm not too comfortable with that."
"I'm not scary, brainwashed Will anymore, Syd. You need to trust me."
"I do. It's just I don't see why it has to be me, especially since you're carrying such important information. You need someone who will move on it fast, and that's not me in this present state."
"Because it would make sense that I was rushing home to be with my pregnant wife who is about to have our baby rather than to an man I have an abhorrence for."
She threw up her hands in submission. "Fine. I'll see you at LAX in ten hours."
"Going radio silent until I'm back to base. Three out."
"Four out," Sydney said, putting the comm back down onto the table in front of her. She turned to her husband. "How did he convince me to do that?"
"He must have been taking notes all those years with you as a best friend. You're the master at getting people to do what you want them to."
"I need to get to the airport in about ten hours. Do you think I'll make it in time?"
"Not if you don't get dressed sometime soon." Sark smiled at her as he walked over to the door. "I have a briefing with Anna about her current operation in France. She's going to let me know what the French government has been hiding from us recently. It shouldn't take that long."
"We won't set a time for lunch then. I don't want you calling your meeting short just so you can see me." She smirked at him. "You've done that too many times already this week."
"You're an addiction, Sydney Lazarey." He shut the door lightly behind himself.
Sydney stood at the arrivals gate, patiently waiting for Will. The plane had been docked for a solid ten minutes before people started filtering out of the plane. They had stopped filtering out two minutes ago. There was still no sign of Will. It took all her control not to go barreling down the hallway and onto the plane to search for him herself.
She tapped her ear lightly to activate the comm channel. "Base Ops. Did Agent Three contact you with changes to his mission?"
"No, Four. Everything should be as scheduled."
"He hasn't gotten off the plane." She caught a flash of something odd out of her right eye. "I think something is wrong. He hasn't gotten off the plane. In fact, I don't think he was on this plane to begin with."
"Hold tight. We'll send in back up."
"It will be too late," she said before switching off her comm. There was no need to broadcast any more. Her mother would kill her for this later, though.
She drew her sidearm out of her coat pocket and slowly made her way through the crowded concourse to the area that had attracted her attention. There were quite a few aspects to this situation that just didn't make sense. If Will hadn't been on the plane from Algeria, then he wasn't even in the airport. But Sydney had a strong gut feeling that he was around somewhere and she just had to find him.
So, if Will was in the airport somewhere, how had he gotten off the plane without her seeing? It seemed to her like he would have had to be taken by force since he wasn't a small man. She would have seen something like that.
Determined to follow her instincts, she caught sight of someone running through a door marked Personnel Only. Without a thought, she followed the mystery person through the door. On the other side was something she did not expect.
Will was leaning up against the far wall, badly bruised and assaulted.
"Will," she hissed, running towards him. She didn't think to check the room for other occupants, but luckily, there were none. "What the hell happened?"
"The children of the prophecy," he mumbled. "They're after the children."
"What children?" Sydney held Will's chin so that he looked her in the eye. "I don't know what you're talking about.""We have to protect them." Will's eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he lost consciousness.
Sydney activated her comm and shouted that she needed a secure ambulance as soon as possible. She kept her hand steadily on his pulse to make sure that he wasn't slipping into a worse state. It stayed steady, and she found comfort in the fact that he had become such a fighter over the years.
The medics arrived within minutes and demanded that she let them assume control. After asking them a million questions for her own reassurance, she allowed them to check on her friend. Then, she finagled her way into being allowed to ride in the ambulance all the way to the hospital
She was left standing in the lobby when they reached their destination. The doctor said he had spoken with her mother and the paramedics. He understood the sensitive nature of this situation and the full scope of what had probably happened.
"Is he going to be all right?" she asked. In her opinion, this was the only thing that mattered at the moment.
"He seems to have been through a lot, Miss Thorne." Sydney didn't flinch at the use of one of her aliases. Irina wouldn't have given away anything to reveal either her true identity or Will's. "In all likelihood, he'll be in a exhaustion-induced coma for at least the next day if not longer."
"How can you know that already?"
"I deal with traumas like these all the time."
Sydney took a deep breath and grabbed the doctor's arm roughly. "I need him to wake up as soon as possible. He had something to tell me that sounded really important. If I don't find out what exactly that was, other people's lives could be in danger."
In the back of her head, she felt herself finally admit that it wasn't other's people's safety she was worried for this time. She had a nagging suspicion that the only true victim in this new crisis would be the small child she was carrying inside her.