Chapter 13:
THE SAFE HOUSE 23:00
Jack was finishing up a phone call when Sydney came out of the bedroom. She had been getting ready and now looked over at her father for a sign that they were still going on with the plans for tonight. He answered her by giving at nod of his head and moved toward the front door.
"Everything's all set. The only thing missing is Vaughn."Jack said impatiently.
"It's not like Vaughn to be late. Something must have held him up." Weiss quickly jumped to his defense. He and Sydney were now pulling on their jackets.
"Well, we need to move out. Let's go." Jack ordered as he opened the door.
"He'll be here." Weiss tried to reassure him, but Jack was already out the door and down the front steps. Weiss looked back at Sydney. She was heading past him and out the door as well.
"Sydney, I know he would want to help. Something's happened or else he'd be here." Weiss said.
"Maybe he had a change of heart ." She said. She watched Weiss' reaction as she knew he wouldn't miss her double meaning. She walked passed him and out the door to follow her father to the car. Jack had already gotten in and started the engine. Sydney climbed into the passenger seat, which left Weiss to take his place in the back. They pulled away from the safe house and headed for the where house and, with any luck, some answers.
CENTRAL L.A.
Jack turned off the headlights and coasted the car up to the wherehouse. He kept a keen eye on his surroundings and he noticed that no other cars were in sight. In fact , Jack felt as if they were the last humans on earth. It was a clear night, which is strange for a city that usually has a blanket of smog hover over it. Tonight however, Jack was able to see all the pinpoint lights twinkling down at him.
Weiss spent the entire drive worried about Vaughn. He had practically wore out the keypad on his cell phone dialing Vaughn's number every other minute. Weiss tried one more time to get Vaughn and hung up when his voice mail came on. Weiss was not going to leave another message. He disconnected the call and punched the leather seat in frustration.
Sydney knew how worried Weiss was for his friend. Truth be told, she was worried for Vaughn a little as well. She looked back at Weiss and gave him a reassuring smile. It didn't help. Sydney spent most of the drive thinking about her dad and how close he was to being pushed over the edge. In all the times that Sydney worked alongside her dad at SD-6 or the CIA, she never knew him to be this reckless. Jack's desperation to find out what happened to her during her missing time, she fears, is causing him to take a great risk on a piece of information that came from God knows where. This was not like her father at all. Jack would have gone to great lengths to pick apart any bit of information until he was quite sure of it's reliability. This was all moving way to fast for Sydney, who like her father, was always throughough when it came to missions. She felt like this was being thrown together at the last minute and everything about tonight gave Sydney an uneasy feeling.
Jack turned to Sydney and Weiss and began to go over the details of their mission one last time.
"Ok. Sydney you and I will enter the building on the north side. Weiss I want you to take position over there." Jack pointed to a smaller building next to the wherehouse.
"You should be able to get a clear view of the wherehouse from there. Make sure you both have you ear pieces in, I want us all to be able to keep in contact with each other at all time." Jack waited for Sydney and Weiss to adjust their earpieces. They all did one last weapons check.
"Everybody clear on the where they should be and what they should be doing?" He waited for confirmation from Sydney and Weiss. They both nodded that they were as ready as they were going to be.
"O.k. then, let's go." Jack popped open his door and got out. Sydney followed closely and Weiss quickly headed over to take his place and to watch for anything that moved in Jack and Sydney's direction.
Jack and Sydney hurried to the north side of the building where the loading dock was. Jack began picking the lock of the huge metal roll up door. Sydney kept lookout. It took several seconds before she heard the click of the lock disengaging and her and Jack slipped into the building.
"We're in." Sydney quietly spoke into her com link to give Weiss an update.
"Copy that. So far so good. I see no sign of life out here." Weiss answered back.
"We're clear here and will be moving into the main part of the building." Sydney and Jack moved through the loading area quickly and stopped for a moment at the door that would take them into the heart of the building.
"Through this door should be a hallway. We go left until we come up to a double door about half way down. Through the double door is a smaller office and that is where they are keeping the doctor." Jack said just above a whisper.
Sydney was more than a little apprehensive at this point. So far, it had seemed all too easy to penetrate this facility and get as far as they had gotten without a single hint of trouble. She was relived that there was no trouble so far but it still sent waves of warning up her spine. It had been too easy. If this man being held is important enough for whoever took him in the first place wants him back, then why hadn't they guarded him a more heavily. Sydney wanted to point this out to her dad but they needed to move quickly and they didn't have to time sit and chat about her uneasiness. They proceeded into the hallway and turned left.
The double doors had been exactly where they were supposed to be. Jack and Sydney carefully slipped through the door and hurried through the room stopping at the door that led to the small office.
Jack crouched on the left side of the door and Sydney flanked him on the right. Jack put his ear up to the cool grain of the door and pushed hard against it trying to hear anything on the other side. The only thing he could make were muffled sounds. No words and worse, no indication of how many people might me in there. Jack used hand signals that told Sydney that he was going in and that she is to stay back and cover him. She nodded and gave him a look that told him to be careful.
Jack quietly turned the knob and slowly began to push the door open. He crouched down as low as he could get making himself as small of a target as he could. He swept the room letting his gun lead his eyes to all the dark little corners of the room. Satisfied that the room was clear enough to enter be crept in. Sydney moved swiftly to the left side where her father had been and began sweeping the room as well.
The room had been small. Made even smaller with the fact that it was dark. It had looked as if was a normal business office. It had everything a normal office would have. A computer desk and chair. A filing cabinet. It wasn't until Sydney had made it all the way into the office and stopped to see what her father was looking at, the she realized that this wasn't a normal office at all. Sitting in the middle of the room, tied to a chair, bleeding from his head was Vaughn.
End of Chapter 13