Chapter 20

Samantha had been in the worst mood she had been in since the drug doctor screwed up her epidural.

She messed up re-dying her roots. The heel on her favourite shoes broke. Her car stopped running yesterday morning. Kendall almost fired her. Julian escaped.

Julian escaped.

Pulling her hair, Samantha rethought the time spent with Julian and Aaralyn. It made no sense. There was just no way he could've escaped.

"Um, Agent Kane?"

Samantha spun around in her chair to face Marshall. She forced a small smile. "What's up?"

"You're, uh, gonna need this. It's a disruptor. Pretty old school really, nothing new. See, uh you click this button and it will disrupt the signal so the camera's will get knocked out. Then, um, whenever you and Syd are done doing—uh, what you do, you click this blue button here and the cameras are as good as new." Marshall handed the gadget to her delicately. He turned to leave but Samantha called out to him.

"Yes Miss Kane?"

"Did you make this yourself? Like from scratch?" She asked, examining the cell phone.

"Yeah. Well, not literally from scratch, I mean I can't just make my own wires and memory, well I could but it would take a long time an—"

"I get it Marshall. Good job," Samantha said, interrupting his ramble. She smiled.

Marshall nodded. "Uh, thanks." Samantha turned back around in her chair, placed the disruptor in an overhanging basket and began to type on her keyboard. "Uh, one more thing. Your plan leaves in half an hour."

"Thank you Marshall," replied Samantha, not even turning from her computer as she keyed quickly.

Marshall shuffled back to his office as Sydney approached Samantha.

"Angry email much?" Asked Sydney when she spotted the all caps quadruple exclamation point print.

Samantha minimized the email and got up out of her chair. She gave a big sigh. "Yeah. What's up?"

"Are you ready?"

Samantha thought for a moment or two. She knew Sydney wasn't just asking if she was ready to leave. "I'm fine. Just been stressing out. I'm sure you know the feeling."

She smiled. "I do."

"I've been thinking over and over about our time together. I just cannot fig—" Samantha stopped as her phone rang. Checking the caller ID first, she answered. "Hi Lydia…mhmm …yes…I know…no, I haven't seen him since…I don't know…well what can you expect…oh…alright …right, bye." Samantha smiled to herself as she placed her phone back in her pocket.

"Contact?" Sydney asked, handing her a file that had been in Sydney's hands.

"Yeah, something of the sort. Alias?"

Sydney nodded. "We'll be going in as sisters."

"Alright. We need to get into the safe, which in itself should not be a problem..."

"It's the even tighter security on Sloane's records, there's a self detonating lock which one wrong move in opening it and there goes our one lead."

"Where did we get this information anyways?"

Sydney breathed in and looked around her.

"Sydney, your mother wants to talk to you," Jack Bristow said as the King of Tact as he interrupted a conversation between Sydney and Vaughn.

She glanced at Vaughn who nodded. "I'll see you later."

"Uh-huh," she replied, watching him leave before turning back to her father and saying in a sarcastic voice, "Thank you."

"I wasn't even going to tell you that she wanted to see you, but she refuses to tell me what she has to say, as per usual," Jack responded calmly, staring in Sydney's eyes with his cold eyes.

Sydney held her father's gaze for a few more moments before heading to her mother's confinement.

Irina was standing with her back faced at Sydney. Tapping the glass, Sydney smiled when her mother saw her. "You wanted to speak with me?"

"Yes, I did. Sloane has a safe inside another safe. It houses his financial records and other things of the like," she said in that sedate voice that was almost a murmur. She came closer to Sydney.

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?"

"It's dangerous."

"We're used to that."

Irina eyed her daughter. She seemed so fearless when she was passionate about something. Her brown eyes would be deeper than usual and her facial features become fierce. "The safe is located in Switzerland, in a mountain. The vault, where Sloane's safe is located, is not so hard to get into I believe. It's the safe that will be a bit more difficult. It has small lasers around it that you cannot see. There are two automatic guns aimed at the safe if it doesn't open even the first time you try to. In order to open this, you must get the week's security code and then turn off the lasers. You then must have the key, which Sloane has."

"So we can't get into it?"

"No, you can. The vault is underneath a mountain, as I have already said. It is connected to a large manor. The owner of such as manor has frequent parties. His name is Benjamin Tyler. He's a young man, in his late twenties perhaps. Easily seduced," Irina said with a hint of a smile.

"Go on."

"You must get into his personal office and somewhere in there is a safe which hold five keys, for each person with a place in his vault. You'll have to get Sloane's."

"Got it. Thanks mom." Sydney, taking one final look at her mother, turned to leave when Irina called out to her.

"Be careful."

Sydney looked over her shoulder at smiled reassuringly at Irina.

She sighed, "My mother."

"Ah. We might as well get outta here and catch the plane. Is Vaughn coming?" Samantha asked, grabbing her keys and bag, shutting down her computer after closing the email.

"Yes, he'll be coming with me when you stay with Tyler."

"Well, I'll see you on the plane," Samantha said as she noticed Sydney was not yet ready.