A/N: I know, I know, it has been ages since I added on, but you can thank school and marching band for that. Anywho, my schedule should be calming down and hopefully I'll be adding the next chapter soon. Thanks to all who reviewed and please keep reading!
Chapter 6
"Alright people, a new problem has arisen," Kendall announced. "Agent Bristow is now aware that the CIA is on her tail and has fled to an unknown location. Our objective is to locate Agent Bristow immediately and find a way to keep a trace on her. In the meantime, we've gotten word that SD-6 is sending an agent to recover this Rambaldi device." Kendall used a remote and a picture of a silver cylinder no longer than a pen appeared on the screen.
"Rambaldi makes several references to something called 'the marker,'" Kendall explained. "The marker is supposed to enclose a liquid that is to be used as a part of Rambaldi's final device when all the pieces are assembled. At this point, we don't know what the liquid contains or its significance as a whole, but what we do know is that we need to make sure that SD-6 doesn't obtain it. Agent Vaughn." Vaughn looked up. "You, Agent Weiss, and your assembled team will be sent to retrieve this device. It's located in a mine in Tijuana. Agent Vaughn, you will enter the mine and retrieve the marker. Agent Weiss, you're monitoring. Your plane leaves in two hours."
As everyone stood up to leave, Agent Wilkins entered the room and walked up to Kendall. "Sir, Mr. Jack Bristow is here to see you."
Kendall smiled. "Thank you."
* * *
"That dinner was delicious, Sydney," Emily Sloane said with a smile.
"Thank you," Sydney smiled back. "It's one of my favorites." Emily stood up to take care of the dishes.
"Emily dear, don't even think about touching the dishes," Sloane scolded gently. "Sydney and I will take care of them. Think of it as your night off."
Emily put her hands on her hips. "Now what kind of a host are you, Arvin? The poor girl has already cooked for us. I don't see why it should be necessary that she takes care of the dishes too."
Sydney, picking up on Sloane's desire to talk to her said, "I don't mind Emily, really. After all, I made the mess, I'll clean it up."
Emily looked like she was about to object, but Sloane interrupted. "We've got it taken care of, Emily, really."
"Alright, I guess I'll go take a shower, but this is to never happen again, understood?" Sloane and Sydney looked at each other and grinned.
"Understood," they agreed. Sloane grabbed the dinner plates while Sydney took charge of the glasses. They formed a system of washing and drying with Sloane at the sink and Sydney holding the dishcloth.
"I really appreciate you making dinner for us tonight, Sydney, it was excellent," Arvin said, breaking the silence.
"Not at all. I mean, I thank you for allowing me to stay here," Sydney said. She paused. "What did you tell Emily?"
"I told her your house was being fumigated," Sloane explained. "But as I said before, Emily wasn't going to question it. Any excuse for her to see you, she'll take." Sydney nodded and continued wiping. Sloane stopped the washing for a moment and looked at Sydney. "Does your father know you're here, Syd?"
Sydney froze. "No," she said curtly. "And I'm not sure he cares."
Arvin looked at her with compassion. "Sydney, the work of a CIA agent causes your father to be distant. When you were younger, you were his entire world, and you still are. You mean more to him than he lets on. I wouldn't want to call your house to have your friends tell me you were on a business trip when I knew you weren't, just as Jack wouldn't."
Sydney looked down at her hands before meeting Sloane's eyes again. "I understand your concern, but my father hasn't so much as said hello to me in the halls of our own office building. The chance of him calling my house would be slim."
"All right, Sydney, if you're sure," Arvin said, but not sounding to happy about letting the situation drop. There were a few more moments of awkward silence before Arvin broke it once again.
"I have a new mission for you," Sloane informed her.
She looked at him in surprise. "Am I going alone?"
"No," Sloane insisted. "The original plan was for you to go alone, but after what happened at your house, I decided that it would be better if you went with Agent Sark."
Sydney nodded hiding her detest for Sark from her face. "Where?"
"Tijuana, you leave tonight. You can read the op on the plane."
* * *
"I've told you everything I know," Jack Bristow said, trying to keep the weariness out of his voice. He'd been under intense questioning by both Director Kendall and Director Devlin for the last few hours, and he'd fully answered every question.
"And we appreciate that," Director Devlin stated. "And you're aware that we're going to be verifying your information?"
"Naturally," Jack answered.
"Good. We only have a few more questions then," Devlin said.
"Tell us about your daughter," Kendall requested.
"What does my daughter have to do with any of this?" Jack demanded sharply.
"As we stated before, Agent Bristow, we believe your daughter could be a great insight into the SD-6 facility," Devlin explained.
"No," Jack commanded. "My daughter will not be involved in any of this. Her job is dangerous enough without her becoming a double agent."
Kendall sighed. Neither man liked how this was going. They were hoping that Jack Bristow would encourage his daughter's employment, not discourage. "We understand your concerns, but we feel that it should be her decision."
Jack Bristow was torn and angry. CIA or not, they had deceived him in their intentions. He in no shape or form wanted Sydney to get involved in this, and now that he was aware that he was no longer working for the CIA, he couldn't turn his alliance back to SD-6.
"We want to present Sydney with the information we presented you, and allow her to decide," Direct Kendall was explaining.
"I do not want my daughter brought into this life," Jack Bristow vehemently stated. "Do I make myself clear?"
"With all do respect, Agent Bristow," Kendall said getting angry, "You are in no position to give out orders."
"And you are in no position to try and recruit my daughter!" Jack said furiously. "You ask her to join and she accepts, she is forced to live a life where she is constantly looking over her shoulder. If she says no, she'll know that she is betraying her country, and when the time comes for the Alliance to fall, she'll be one of the few who are placed behind bars because of what she knows. I refuse to do that to my daughter."
There was a timed silence before any of them spoke. "All right, Agent Bristow, for now, we'll honor your request, but I hope you will think about what this means. Sydney Bristow has field access to all the Rambaldi devices and a chance for us to be informed of Alliance intelligence that you may not even be able to access. By trying to save your daughter, you're hurting the investigation. Just keep that in mind, please," Devlin requested.
"You're free to go, Agent Bristow," Kendall said unhappily. "Welcome aboard."
* * *
"Can you hear me?" Sydney asked her earpiece.
"Loud and clear," Sark replied.
Dirt sprung up in swirling funnels as she walked towards the mine. The entrance was small, collapsed through erosion, but Sydney was still able to get through. Carefully she bent down and placed C-4 explosives at either side of the entranceway and proceeded inside.
"C-4's in place."
"Copy that."
Sydney stepped inside and turned on her flashlight. The beam of light revealed sagging timbers that in actuality should have been lying in piles of the floor, but by some miraculous finger of God had remained standing. The mine smelt heavily of dirt and mold from the termite infested wood, but not unbearably so. Having been used as a silver mine years ago, the air in the tunnel was breathable.
Sydney continued down the tunnel in silence. Every once in a while dirt would slide down from the ceiling, which made her believe that if she sneezed the tunnel would collapse. The Rambaldi device was located about a mile in. Sydney shuddered. This mine seemed ready to go at any moment and the only thing she was looking forward to was slipping in and out in as fast as she could.
"Scared, Agent Bristow?" Sark asked after hearing her shudder.
'No," Sydney answered immediately. "It's not scary walking down a dark tunnel with thousands and thousands of pounds of dirt on top of you."
Sydney could picture Sark's smug grin. "Ah, do you want me to come in there with you?"
"Sure, and I'll see to it personally that the mine collapses before you get out," Sydney retorted.
"Darn, and I was hoping you would risk your life to save me," Sark pouted.
"Not even in your dreams." Sydney looked at her hand held mile meter. She was exactly one mile into the mine and she didn't see any sign of the device. "I don't see the marker. Are we sure that the miners didn't remove it?" Sydney asked as she moved her flashlight up and down the walls.
"As far as our sources prove, the device is still—"
"Wait a minute, I think I see something," Sydney interrupted as her flashlight beam caught something shiny. She headed over the wall and began to remove dirt around the shiny area until the last remnants of soil fell to reveal the outline of a side of a metal box. She pulled at the rectangular box until it fell into her arms. Underneath the remaining earth the covered the top of the box was Rambaldi's all too familiar symbol. "I've found it."
"Good work Sydney," Sark congratulated.
"I'm activating the timer for five minutes," Sydney said as she pushed the detonator, grabbed the box, and started running towards the exit.
"Copy that, see you in a few."
Sydney continued running to the exit until suddenly, she heard voices. Crap, she thought. She looked around and jumped behind a pillar. She knew they couldn't walk past her without her being seen. She took a deep breath, removed her gun from her holster, and turned out her flashlight. The voices got louder. Sydney waited until they sounded close enough for her to fire.
She rounded the pillar so that she was now standing in front of it and fired. She immediately hit two agents before she rounded back. She had counted a total of four, so that meant there were only two left. By now they had their guns drawn and were firing at her safety pillar. She needed to get out of here, and unfortunately it did seem like she could do that by going forward.
"I've got company," Sydney said into her mike.
"I'm coming, Syd. Hang on," she heard Sark call. Sydney looked around and decided she would go a little deeper into the tunnel. She slinked her arm around the pillar and fired randomly as she ran down the tunnel. She heard shouts as the other men followed. Her time was getting short. Where was Sark?
She jumped behind another pillar and fired at the men again. This time, she recognized the one of them to be Michael Vaughn. Her eyes narrowed. This was the man she was supposed to kill, and she was running away from him? Not this time. She put the box down and turned around the pillar again and fired, but the two men had taken cover. Then to her surprise, the man who accompanied Vaughn fell. Michael Vaughn turned and looked behind him.
"Put your gun down!" A voice that Sydney recognized to be Sark's called.
Vaughn looked back and forth between the two and reluctantly lowered his weapon. Sydney picked up the box and walked over to Sark.
"It's the marker, take it. I'll deal with him," Sydney ordered.
Sark raised an eyebrow. "Do it!" Sydney said. Sark nodded and ran in the direction which he came while Sydney kept her gun on Vaughn.
"Why have you been following me?" Sydney demanded.
Vaughn swallowed. "I work for the CIA, they want to recruit you."
"Liar," Sydney said angrily.
"You work for the Alliance," Sydney accused.
Vaughn shook his head. "You've got it backwards, Agent Bristow. Arvin Sloane actually is the head of one of the—" Vaughn didn't get to finish as Agent Bristow's gun smoked and the bullet hit his shoulder.
"Don't lie to me," Sydney growled.
"I'm telling the truth," Vaughn said through snippets of pain.
Sydney walked closer to him at a point blank range. "I have orders to kill you," she said looking him in the eyes. "But before I do, I want to know one thing. Why did you turn Agent Roderick against us?"
Vaughn met her eyes evenly. "Agent Roderick was a CIA agent. His real name was Aaron Grayson. Arvin Sloane had him killed because he found out that he was a double agent spying on SD-6, a sub-unit of the Alliance, not the CIA."
Sydney looked a little less self-assured but her gun said otherwise. Before she could react, the C-4's blew. Rocks and dirt fell in clumps and timbers began to snap and fall dangerously over their heads. Vaughn fell to the ground and placed his hands over his head. Sydney didn't fall so willingly. A support struck her from behind and she lost consciousness. Both her flashlight and her gun fell to the ground.
A few seconds later, the shaking stopped and the air began to clear. Vaughn sat up and circulated his flashlight beam around the room. He spied Sydney's gun immediately, but when he saw Sydney, he didn't think he needed it. Blood was dripping down the side of her face that was closest to the ground as a timber leaned its weight across her back, pinning her. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and saw that both the entrance from which they came and the exit behind them was blocked. They were officially trapped.