Chapter 5: A Pleasant Surprise
Author's note: Ok, as always, I want to thank you for the wonderful feedback. They make my day. Oh, there's some Spanish here, just so you know, but the sentences aren't really relevant. I just wrote them to make this whole thing more realistic, so don't worry if you don't understand. Don't forget to review, please.
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Madrid hasn't changed much, Sydney Bristow thought as she got out of the car.
She tipped the man, thanking him for opening her door and made her way to Mr. Deza's mansion. Sydney couldn't help the stares she was getting from the male guests. Her long red dress left very little to the imagination. Her back was completely naked to the eye and the beautiful dress clung perfectly to every curve. Sydney couldn't help but wonder, once again, why Sloane insisted on her wearing this sort of dresses. Wasn't it the point, after all, to avoid drawing any attention to herself so she could pull this mission off successfully?
"Buenas noches, señorita." A short man greeted her, "¿Podría darme su nombre, por favor?"
Sydney smiled, "María López."
The man checked his list, until he finally found her name.
"Adelante, por favor." He allowed her entrance. "Que tenga una velada placentera."
"Muchas gracias." She said with a perfect accent. After all, she had lived in Spain for six years.
Inside, several couples were dancing, while others were talking cheerfully in small groups. She eyed the crowd carefully, trying to ID Mr. Deza. It didn't take her long. She easily recognized him from the picture Sloane had shown her. He was a tall man, in his late forties, probably.
"Dixon, I've located Mr. Deza. When will he begin his speech?" She asked quietly over her com.
"In about an hour." She heard Dixon's voice.
Sydney would steal the file during Mr. Deza's speech. She needed to get into his office in the third floor, but, in order to do that, she had to deal with four guards first. Meanwhile, Dixon would tap into the security cameras, but the problem was that he wouldn't be able to keep an eye on her, so she would be on her own. Then she would use one of Marshall's little toys to open the door and once inside, the safe too. Sydney smiled, when memories of Marshall's last 'speech' came to her mind.
"Hello, how's everyone?" Marshall asked, "Ok, good. Uhm, did anyone watch that documental about lions the other day? It was good… very good actually. They showed the lions eating and sleeping and running freely and doing all sorts of things… no? Oh, well, uhm, Ms. Bristow, this…" He showed a small mirror, which almost slipped from his hands, "looks like a regular mirror, right? Ladies use it when they go out, 'cause they want to look pretty and this is very helpful, right? I'm not saying you're not pretty, Ms. Bristow, because you are…yes, uhm, well… my mom used to have one, although I don't remember exactly what color it was, and my sister too, I think…" He trailed off after seeing Sloane's murderous look.
"Marshall…" Sloane's patience was wearing off.
Sydney's lips curved up a little and she tried to suppress a laugh.
"Yes, uhm, well you just put this little mirror next to the door, like this." He motioned how to do it, "And to open the safe you do the same… and there you go." He finished proudly.
Sydney glanced around the place, pretending to be looking for someone. She didn't want to start any sort of conversation with anyone right know. She checked her watch. Thirty minutes to go, she thought to herself. Suddenly she felt a warm hand on her shoulder. She turned around to tell the person politely that she was expecting someone, but when she did, she found herself staring into the eyes of Michael Vaughn. What was he doing here? This was not part of the plan. He looked incredibly sexy wearing a black tuxedo and with his hair slightly tousled.
"¿Le gustaría bailar, señorita?" He asked her in a loud voice.
She nodded her head, accepting his invitation. He leaded her to the dance floor, just when a slow song was beginning to sound in the background. Sydney disconnected her com so Dixon wouldn't hear their conversation.
"What are you doing here?" She demanded to know, "You can't be here."
He gave her one of his disarming smiles, "Devlin sent me. Apparently, this file's importance is greater than we thought." He explained, "Your counter-mission has changed. You still need to recover the file, but, instead of taking pictures of it, you'll give us the file and we'll give you a fake one. I'll go to your hotel room later to pick it up and give you the replacement."
"Won't Sloane notice that I've given him a fake one?" She barely managed to get the words out, because, after explaining the situation to her, Vaughn had pulled her body closer to his.
"No, he'll think Mr. Deza, being as paranoid as he is, somehow placed a fake file to deceive him." He said, drawing small patterns in her bare back.
Sydney was losing it. How much more of this torture could she handle?
"Besides, Syd, we wouldn't do anything to risk your safety." He whispered huskily in her ear.
She nodded her head, not trusting her own voice. Just then, the song ended and Vaughn pulled away.
"Muchas gracias por el baile, señorita. Espero que nos volvamos a ver."
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Sydney waited for Mr. Deza to begin his little speech. Many guests were gathered in the center of the room, talking to each other and drinking champagne. It should start any minute now, she thought to herself.
Just as she'd finished that thought, Mr. Deza appeared in the room and made his way to the front. The guests stopped talking and turned their attention to the man.
"Dixon, I'm going in." Sydney said over her com.
"Ok, just a sec… ok, go. You have five minutes." He told her.
Sydney smiled at the guests as she disappeared from view. She left the room carefully, making sure nobody saw her. She took the stairs and got to the second floor. There were only two guards, which were chatting together not really paying attention to their surroundings. There's probably nothing of value here, she thought.
She got to the third floor successfully, not making any noises. She peeked in and saw four armed guards. Two were at the beginning of the corridor and the other two were close to Mr. Deza's office. She took a moment to think how she would do this. There was no chance in hell that she'd be able to take down the first two guards without being noticed by the other two.
She opened her purse and took her lipstick out. She threw it away carefully so it would land on the second floor. The guards closer to the stairs heard the faint sound of something making contact with the floor and looked at each other confused. One of the guards keeping an eye on the office's door motioned with his hand for them to go and check it out.
Once the guards were out of sight, Sydney made her presence known and approached the guards.
"Disculpe señorita, pero ésta es una zona restringida." A beefy guard stopped her. "No puede estar aquí."
Sydney gave them a confused smile, "I'm sorry, I don't understand. I was just looking for the bathroom. I think the food wasn't…" She bent down, as if she was about to throw up.
One of the guards was quickly by her side, trying to help her. Sydney took this opportunity to kick him in the stomach. The man landed on his butt and instantly fell unconscious.
The other guard showed her a knife and slowly approached her. Sydney tried to kick the knife out of his hand, but she had no luck. The man punched her in the face and attacked her with the knife. She was able to get away at first, but he managed to stab her in the back. Sydney groaned loudly.
"Ok, now I'm upset." She said through clenched teeth, getting ready to kick his ass.
The guard smiled at her smugly.
He never saw it coming. Sydney kicked him in the face and then in the stomach, sending him straight to dreamland.
She checked her watch and cursed silently. She had lost two precious minutes. She ran to the office's door and quickly took the mirror out of her purse. She put it next to door and waited for a few moments. The door opened soundlessly and she stepped inside, closing it behind her. Just in case somebody came looking for her, that would slow them down and it would give her time to find an alternative escape route.
Her gaze wandered around the room, looking for the safe. She checked behind the paintings first, thinking about how cliché that was. When she found nothing, she went to the bookcase to look behind the books. She found a small safe and instantly put the mirror next to it. The safe took a minute to open and once it did, Sydney wasted no time. She took all the files out and looked for file 6. Once she was done, she closed the safe.
"¡Está allí, en la oficina del señor Deza!" The guards tried to open the door unsuccessfully.
Sydney searched for an exit, but didn't find one. Her eyes landed shortly on the window and she smiled.
"Dixon." She called, "I can't leave the room. There are guards outside. I'm gonna jump out of the window. Wait for me there."
"Sydney, you're in the third floor." Dixon's disapproving voice replied.
Sydney sighed, "It's the only exit, Dixon. Just wait for me there."
She opened the window, grateful and surprised at the same time that it didn't have any bars, and prepared herself to jump. She silently prayed for her safety and, just as the guards came crashing through the door, she jumped.
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Author's note: I hope you liked this chapter. I'm not really good at writing action scenes so just bear with me here. Anyway, the next chapter will be all about Sydney and Vaughn, so don't worry. Oh, I almost forgot… somebody asked me if I could translate the poem Vaughn gives Sydney. The truth is I've tried but for some reason I can't. I mean, it's not the same, so just so you know, the poem is about friendship and friends being there for each other during the happy and difficult times, which I think best describes their relationship as kids, you know. Anyway, don't forget to review and if you have any suggestions about what you'd like to see in the fic just tell me and I'll be more than happy to please you guys.
Lorena