The Dream

Chapter 2: Valencia, Part I

Author's Note: (or maybe it should be a warning) I have attempted to put my limited Spanish ability to use here. Please don't stop reading just because my Spanish is bad, and let me know what you think.

Valencia, Spain

Sydney walked up to a Spanish mansion wearing a provocative, dark blue dress. Marshall's comb matches perfectly with her outfit and is secured in her long, softly curling hair. Her makeup almost completely hid the wound on her face.

As she walked up the steps, she let her thoughts wander to her last meeting with Vaughn. She had almost had a heart attack when he told her that she was great in Shanghai, and hoped he hadn't noticed the way she had been looking at him. Vaughn was supposed to be her boss, her handler, not her friend and especially not her lover. She had known that she was getting closer to Vaughn than she was supposed to, but she hadn't realized until last night that he was the man of her dreams.

"Well," she thought as she approached the door, "There's nothing like a good SD-6 mission to get your mind off of these sort of things."

She took a second to regain her composure before knocking politely on the door. A tall Spanish man, the butler, opened it for her.

"Bienvenidos, señorita." He gestured for her to come inside. "¿Su nombre, por favor?"

"Liliana Juarez Salvino," Sydney answered, stepping into the mansion and smiling sweetly at him.

He walked over to a little table and searched through a long list for her name. Moving closer to him, she bent down to help him look. She watched as his eyes wandered to her chest and followed the outline of her graceful figure. Rolling her eyes, she moved even closer to him, brushing his arm. She had become good at this, almost too good. "Ah," she exclaimed, pointing a delicate finger to a name on the list. "Allí lo está."

He quickly looked back down at the table and checked her name off the list. "Gracias Señorita Juarez. ¿Puede darme su bolsillo, por favor?" He pointed to her purse and Sydney handed it to him. He took everything out, slowly and carefully examining each object before putting them back inside.

"Bien… Y ahora…" he gestured towards a metal detector.

"Sí, por supuesto," Sydney smiled at him again and he blushed and quickly looked away. When she walked through the detector the alarm went off, just as Marshall had said it would. "¡Ay dios mio!" Sydney cried, feigning surprise and embarrassment. The butler walked over to her, and she continued her act. "No sé por que…" flustered, she looked down at her dress and then put her hand up to her hair. "Ay, sí…aquí," she took the comb out of her hair. "Fue un regalo de mi abuela. Es oro y plata." She handed it to him and he fingered it as she walked through the metal detector again; this time the alarm did not go off.

"Lo siento, señorita. Aquí," he handed her back the comb and her purse.

She placed the comb back in her hair, and slung the purse smoothly over her shoulder. "Gracias señor."

"Espero que tiene una noche buena, señorita."

"I bet you do," she thought, flashing him another smile before walking into the other room.

Sydney walked through the crowded party room, holding a glass of wine and carefully watching the other guests. To her left three women were laughing just a little too loudly, while to her right two men were eyeing her and whispering to each other. When she had seen the dress that Sloane had prepared for her to wear for this mission, she thought she was going to be out of place, but she definitely wasn't. "This is a gathering for the disclosure of scientific research," she thought, "couldn't the guests act or at least dress a little more professionally?"

She sighed and checked her watch: 9:37. Twenty-three more minutes and Campuzino would begin his speech. Then she would be free to complete her mission, and get the hell out of there. She secretly hoped that Campuzino was not like the guests he had invited to the unveiling of his scientific research. If he was, then her mission was useless, this man would definitely have no idea what a vaccine even was, forget how to make one.

Suddenly, a short man approached her and nervously looked her up and down, pausing a moment longer on her breasts than he should have. Sydney began to wonder if all men were this perverted or just the men at this party. She eyed him carefully and he walked closer.

"Excuse me, señorita," he said with a thick accent, "The Señor Rivera has been requesting your presence."

"Really?" Sydney replied with an accent to match that of the little man. She raised her eyebrows, wondering who the hell Señor Rivera was. "What does he want?"

"I do not know, señorita, but you would do best to follow his request."

"And why is that?" she replied coolly, even though this man was making her a little nervous, and she was beginning to wonder if her cover had been blown.

The man paused and looked down at his feet. "He said he would not be happy with me if I did not return with you."

"Fine," Sydney sighed; this man was so nervous, he was shaking. "Where is this Señor Rivera?"

The short man breathed a sigh of obvious relief, "Thank you, thank you, señorita. You are very kind, and if I may say, very lovely in that dress."

Sydney smiled at the pathetic little creature, and let him take her arm and lead her through the room.

"The señor is right over here. I will take you to him and I am sure he will be very happy to see you. He has been watching you for several minutes."

This last comment made Sydney wonder if she had made the right decision agreeing to see this man; he could be an agent from K-Directorate who had recognized her. But then again half of the men in the room had been staring at her, and it was too late to change her mind.

The little man had quickly led her to a quiet corner of the room, where a black-haired man was standing with his back towards them, admiring a painting on the wall. There was something about him that was oddly familiar, but Sydney could not figure out what it was.

The little man told her to wait a few steps away from the stranger, as he approached him. "The señorita you were asking for, Señor Rivera," he said. Señor Rivera nodded his thanks and gestured for the man to leave.

Sydney took a step closer to the stranger as he slowly turned around.

Her eyes widened with the shock of sudden recognition and then narrowed. "What the hell are you doing here?"