Las Vegas, Nevada

Sydney landed at McCarran Airport early that afternoon.  The hour-long flight had been without incident and although short, gave her time to think back on all that she knew about Jason Durant.

Jason had only gone to college to please his powerful and successful multimillionaire father. An average student, he barely got by in his classes and sometimes only on his charm, doling it out to enthralled TA's, who didn't mind boosting his grades from time to time. Sydney remembered how Jason always seemed to be surrounded by a crowd of girls and guys, hanging on his every word. She used to see him on campus from time to time, when he was heading out to a club while she was heading to the library.

They had met in Abnormal Psychology. He was already a senior, but still in the process of taking the required classes he needed in order to graduate.  She had been a freshman, quiet and studious and not exactly his type, if she were to judge the girls she usually saw him with. He was a guy who went to the extremes, leaning more towards the tanned, gorgeous California blondes or the exotic Asian girls with their pale skin and shiny black hair or the vivacious, peaches-and-cream-skinned redheads. So it was with shock and surprise when he sat down next to her in the cavernous lecture hall two weeks into the spring quarter.

He struck up a conversation with her and appeared to be pursuing her for some unfathomable reason. Surprisingly, he treated her in a very gentlemanly fashion and didn't make a move to ask her out on a real date. To use his words, they just "hung out together." Consequently, they became friends.

In the beginning, she secretly thought he was only using her to get by in the class. While that wasn't exactly an honorable maneuver, she was okay with it because she knew his game going in (or so she thought). And hey, when one of the hottest guys on campus was pretending to hang on your every word, she could overlook this flaw in his less-than-stellar character. It was kind of nice to be the girl everyone else envied for a change. It gave her a self-confidence she hadn't even known she possessed. She could be attractive and interesting and flirtatious and have people pay attention to what she had to say. If she actually stopped to think about it, Jason's interest in her might have been one of the reasons why she'd listened twice to the SD-6 recruitment officer. Before meeting Jason, she would have thought, "Me a spy? Never!" But after a few months in Jason's orbit, she found herself thinking, "I could be a spy if I wanted to be."

After they came back from Spring Break, Jason tried to move their relationship to the next plateau. She couldn't quite believe it, but wonder of wonders, he actually appeared to care for her. He told her he'd missed her and thought about her often during their time apart.

By that time, however, she wasn't so taken with him because she saw him as a friend, not as some godlike, unattainable Big Man On Campus. But she agreed to go out on a few "real" dates with him and they kissed and whatnot (she did find him attractive, after all), but it never went any farther than that. Jason didn't push, but she could tell he was disappointed.

Although his attempt at romancing her failed, they still remained friends. She helped him study for the final in Abnormal Psych, he passed all of his classes and so he graduated. She hadn't heard from him since.

Once she was in the terminal, Sydney headed for the car rental counter. Since she was supposed to appear down-on-her-luck, she planned on taking a room close to the hotel at a less-than-savory establishment.

The Tahitian Terrace Motel didn't exactly live up to its name. It wasn't quite as rundown as those motels she passed that advertised their rates as "Weekly! Daily! Hourly!" (Sydney just couldn't bring herself to stay in a place that charged by the hour), but it wasn't the Four Seasons, either. There were a few palm trees planted outside the manager's office, but the dingy, two-story building with the pink-painted doors wasn't quite tropical enough to conjure up sandy beaches or bamboo huts or ocean breezes in her mind.

But it appeared relatively clean when she stepped into the dark motel room and turned on the lights. The walls were painted white and there was a colorful beach print on the wall. The bedspread was a shiny dark green jacquard and the carpet was a beige shag that had seen better days, judging by the stains in various places around the room. She strolled into the bathroom and surveyed the bad lighting and the small tub with the torn green shower curtain. Oh, well, if she were lucky, she wouldn't be spending much time here, anyway.

Opening her carry-on, Sydney stripped out of her black Donna Karan pantsuit and into a skintight Lycra tank dress that barely covered what it should have. Sydney resisted the urge to keep tugging at her "skirt" as she re-applied her makeup with a slightly heavy hand. Stepping into a pair of three-inch heels, she grabbed her tote and headed for her job interview at the Oasis.

Weiss' Government-Issued Ford Taurus (speeding down I-15)

"So, what's with the Mr. Spontaneous Act?" Weiss looked sideways at him as he moved out behind a slow-moving Cadillac so that he could pass it.

"Huh?" Vaughn feigned innocence.

"Come on, you're not exactly the impulsive type." Weiss chided him.

"Hey, give me a break!" Vaughn protested. "Wasn't I being impulsive in regard to the whole McKenas Cole debacle?"

"Well, yeah, but that was because Sydney was in trouble." Weiss cut his eyes at Vaughn, who had a slightly guilty look on his face. "Oh, man, why did it take me so long to figure it out? Does this little weekend sojourn have to do with a certain Agent we all know and you love?" He waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

Vaughn shot Weiss a deadly look. "Knock it off."

Weiss smirked. "Seriously, what's going on? Is it her mission?"

"She's not on a mission." He admitted. "At least not a sanctioned one."

"What's she doing?"

"There's someone in Vegas who has photos of Sloane with another woman in a…compromising position." Vaughn revealed.

"Whoa!" Weiss was properly shocked. "And he sent Sydney to get them? I didn't think he trusted her that much."

"Well, he didn't have much choice."

"What about Jack?"

Vaughn shook his head. "Jack wouldn't be able to accomplish this."

"And Sydney can? Why?"

"Because she knows the guy who has the photos. They dated in college."

"Ohhh!" Weiss suddenly understood. "So are we heading to Vegas because you think she can't handle herself? Because let me tell you, she could kick both our butts and not break a sweat."

"I know that. I'm not worried that she'll get hurt."

Weiss threw his friend a knowing glance. "Oh, so this is something else? Something else like the fact that you're a bit jealous that Sydney's going to hook up with an old flame?"

"He's not an old flame." Vaughn was quick to point out. "She told me they never…slept together." He said, feeling awkward.

"Ooh, and that little nugget of information came up just so casually in the conversation, did it?"

"It wasn't as calculated as you make it sound. She just wanted me to know--" Vaughn felt like a dolt as he suddenly realized why Sydney had let that information be known. "She wanted me to know." He repeated, almost to himself.

"Makes you wonder why, doesn't it?" Weiss quipped and pressed his foot down on the gas.

To be continued