Chapter 4

As Sydney left the office, she walked over to her desk and find Dixon there.

"Dixon, I want to…" But before she could have finished her sentence, Dixon handed her a note and walked away.

Sydney opened the note and read it.

Sydney, there are a lot of things that don't add up here. For example when you specifically called yourself Freelancer instead of Bluebird back in Argentina. That raises a lot of questions that I hope you'll have answers to. Meet me tonight at pier 16 over by the docks at 8.

Dixon

After reading the note Sydney quickly crumbled it and placed it inside her pocket. She later made her way to the meeting room where Dixon, Jack, and Marshall were waiting. As soon as Sydney got herself settled, Sloane walked in. He walked over to his chair and picked up a remote, which closed all the doors and dimmed the lights.

"We have quite an urgent matter today. As you all know, we've been after "The Man" for some time now. And now we've finally got a lead on who "The Man" might be," Sloane said, as he began playing a video.

The video clearly showed Sark holding onto Vera.

"Vera come with me. I promise you'll be safe."

Vera pulled away, "I can't leave my mother…"

Sark briefly gazed into Vera's eyes, "Yes you can…trust me."

Vera seemed hypnotized, "I won't leave without my grandfather."

Sark paused for a moment, knowing Khasinau would never accept, "Well then we'll take him with us."

As the two were about to search for Khasinau, Irina walked in with several men.

"Vera, I'm disappointed…well, not really. I've expected this from you and from Alexander…but Sark. Well, it doesn't matter now, since you two will be dead."

"Correction, Irina, all of us will be dead in…exactly five minutes. So I suggest you "try" to handle your business another time."

Irina softly smiled, "Is that right?"

Sark checked his watch, "Sorry, four minutes."

"You may be clever, Mr. Sark, but you forget who you are dealing with. You and I know that there are at least eight maybe seven minutes left…well, that is if the bomb is still on. You see, we quickly discovered the control room and made a few alterations."

Sark looked baffled and then turned to Vera, giving her a quick nod. Soon enough the two of them quickly shot the lights resulting in complete darkness.

The lights soon came on and Sloane was standing next to a projection image of Vera and Khasinu.

"I've just received an urgent message from SD-5 confirming that Khasinau and his granddaughter have just been eliminated."

"Under whose orders?" Dixion asked.

Sloane briefly stared at Sydney before answering, "The Man's… otherwise known as Irina Derevko."

Sydney stared at her father, transfixed, while Dixon looked at her questioningly.

Dixon soon focused his attention on Sloane, "What's our mission?"

"Surveillance. You both will go to Zurich, where you are to gather pictures of Derevko's activities. Jack and another team will gather video surveillance. Bring them back here for analysis, and wait for further instruction."

"That's it?" Sydney asked.

Sloane gave her a smile and simply responded, "That's it. Simple as that."

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Sydney entered the warehouse and slowly walked over to where Vaughn was sitting.

Sydney gave him a smile, "Hey."

Vaughn returned the smile, "So, how was your first day back?"

"Good, except that Sloane was asking a lot of questions."

Vaughn gave her a worried look; "Well, does he suspect anything?"

"No…I mean, I think he did at first. But then he said after talking to me, he wasn't going to pursue anything."

"Oh…anything else?"

"Yeah…Dixon he…well, he definitely suspects something. He wants to meet me tonight, over by the docks at eight," Sydney paused for a moment. "Vaughn I'm just gonna tell him the truth. Dixon can't possibly know whom he's really working for. We can trust him with this," Sydney blurted out.

"Sydney," Vaughn said hastily. "We've had this discussion before. Right now we don't know where Dixon's allegiance lie. And if he doesn't know whom he's really working for, it's best to keep it that way. Think about it, Sydney, he has family; he has too much to risk."

Sydney gave Vaughn a weak nod, "You're right…I guess I wasn't thinking."

Vaughn looked at her for a brief moment before speaking, "So, I hear you're going to Zurich."

"Yeah, my father and I are on surveillance. We're tracking my….my mother's activities."

Vaughn lowered his head for a moment and then handed Sydney a tiny card, "Here take this".

"What is it?"

"It's a state of the art smart card. Just stick that in the camera you're using and it'll upload all the images to the CIA's servers. It's completely untraceable."

Sydney checked her watch; "I have to go. I'm meeting Marshall in fifteen minutes."

"Alright. Good luck tomorrow."

"Ok, bye."

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Marshall was busy pounding away at his computer when Sydney entered the room. She walked over to him, and lightly tapped him on the shoulder, "Marshall."

Marshall slightly jumped from his chair, "Oh, Sydney, I was just….um, playing Space Invaders. And I must say the graphics on this thing are quite remarkable. In fact, I have the top score," he said proudly. "Do you…do you wanna try…because it's going to take you quite awhile to top this."

Sydney smiled, "Uh, maybe another time."

"Oh…ok."

"Marshall, aren't you supposed to…"

"Oh, yes, of course," he said, walking over to a table and picking up a camera.

"You see this looks like an ordinary digital camera, right…WRONG," he said enthusiastically. Marshall handed Sydney the camera. "This baby's zoom is so advanced that you can take a picture a mile away if you wanted to. Well, maybe not a mile, but pretty close. Oh, and this button here is to activate the heat sensors. So you'll can keep a close track on everyone."

"Ok, thanks," Sydney said, giving him yet another smile.

Marshall watched Sydney walk away, "If you ever wanna give Space Invaders a shot, just…just let me know," he yelled after her.