Author's Note: This chapter is longer than the other one, but probably doesn't make sense due to my flu-addled brain. By the way, Sudafed and Demazin rule!!!
Weiss crawled slowly through the ducts, cursing his size. He knew that Sydney had crawled through these exact same ducts when Cole infiltrated the building, but he never really appreciated how hard it was. The ducts were TINY! Of course, it might have helped that Sydney was a good few inches shorter than him, and would have weighed about 50kgs soaking wet. And she didn't have enough gadgets to keep a guerrilla army supplied for a decade strapped all over her. All in all, Weiss was not entirely happy. He crawled around a corner and finally reached his destination. He let out a sigh of relief and wiped a bead of sweat that was running down his forehead. Then he reached up and turned on his radio.
"I'm in," he said, trying to keep everything as simple as possible. The shorter the message, the smaller the chance of it being overhead. He leaned his head against the wall and waited for a reply.
"Camera's disabled. You're free to go on," came the static-filled reply. Imagine that, bad reception when you're sitting in a long, metal tube, thought Weiss sarcastically. Then he pulled out a screwdriver and went to work on the vent in front of him.
*
Will sat in the panel van, bored out of his mind. It had been all right before- he'd been caught up in the whole 'spy' thing, but now the professionals were gone, leaving him all alone. He tapped his foot, watching the clock anxiously. Sydney had already been in these people's hands for hours- he'd spent less time with people like these, and that was enough. He only hoped she was all right.
*
Finally! The vent came free, and Weiss threw it aside. Then he squeezed himself through the tiny gap and dropped to the floor of the most blandly furnished room he'd ever seen. He looked around, struggling not to laugh. There was a chair in the corner, and a bin next to the door. That was about it. He turned back around and looked at the air conditioning vent. Maybe they should install ducting that isn't big enough to fit people in, he thought. But I'm not going to point it out to them.
He stuffed the screwdriver back into one of his many pockets and walked to the door. After examining the hinges closely, he pulled out a small water bottle and dripped some on a slightly rusty looking one. Then he pulled it slowly open. It moved without a sound, which brought a proud grin to Weiss' face. He walked out of the room, careful to shut the door behind him and headed down the hall to the elevators.
Once inside the elevator, he waited for Jack to give him more information. After a minute Jack's voice sounded in his ear.
"They're being held in sub-basement 4. It's on the third floor underground."
Weiss studied the buttons in front of him carefully, then reached out one gloved finger and pressed the one reading B4, assuming the B stood for basement. The elevator juddered, then descended. Looks like I was right, thought Weiss triumphantly.
*
Jack stood in a room, facing rows and rows of security camera images. He'd already locked the door and cut off any outside access to the cameras, and was watching the televisions intently, looking for any sign of his daughter. Suddenly a flash of movement caught his eye, and he turned to face the television. It depicted a small room, with Sydney and Agent Vaughn inside. There seemed to be someone else, but he couldn't make out their face. He silently willed them to turn around. After a minute, his wish was granted. The unknown person turned around, showing their face to the camera.
"Oh, shit," murmured Jack.
*
"Oh, shit," came Jack's voice over the earpiece. Weiss jumped slightly, startled, then touched his earpiece.
"What is it?" he asked anxiously.
"I found Sydney…" answered Jack cryptically, then fell silent. Great, thought Weiss. This guy's just full of answers today. The elevator shuddered to a halt, and the doors slid open. Weiss looked around, then walked out carefully.
"Okay, direct me," he said.
"You need to go about 100 metres in front of you, then into the door on your left," came the tinny reply. Weiss nodded, then set off, carefully counting his paces.
*
Sydney glanced over at Vaughn, worried about him. He smiled back at her weakly, his pale face creased with pain. She sighed. She couldn't stand to see him like this- she was pretty sure he'd fractured some of the bones of his hand when he'd dislocated the thumb, but couldn't be sure. As soon as she got the chance she was going to take a closer look at his hand, but for the moment she had to focus.
Francie turned away from Sydney and thought hard, plans forming in her head. Most were rejected outright, but one seemed to be okay. She thought for a few more minutes, and then finally decided that they had to take the risk.
"Okay, I can get us out of here," she said, turning back to face Sydney and the other man. They both looked at her expectantly.
"If we can get to the elevators without being seen, there's an air conditioning duct that leads out to the car park. From there, it's up to you guys."
Sydney thought it over, and then nodded. It was risky, but there weren't any other options. She gestured for Francie to lead the way.
*
Weiss turned around the corner and waited for further instructions. They were slow in coming, and not very informative.
"Keep going. They're in one of the rooms. I have to leave, people are going to be suspicious." So Weiss kept going, walking quietly down the hallway until he reached a door. He opened the door and looked inside. Empty. He carefully shut the door and walked to the next one.
Sydney peeked around the corner, checking to see if it was clear. Someone was there, looking inside the rooms. She swore under her breath, then turned to Francie.
"Is there another way around?" she asked in a whisper. Francie nodded, and the three of them backed away from the corner slowly.
Weiss looked towards the end of the hall. He was certain he'd heard someone say something. He froze, then backed away down the hall quietly. He'd have to find another route.
Francie led Vaughn and Sydney back down the hall and around another corner. She opened a door and stepped inside. Vaughn and Sydney followed warily. The room was different to the first one, larger, with several doors. Francie frowned for a moment, then strode across the room and opened another door. She peeked outside, then nodded in satisfaction.
"This is it," she said, ushering them forward. Vaughn sighed. It would have been so much easier just to walk straight to the elevators. If only the cameras weren't there, they could have escaped ages ago.
Weiss walked around another corner, and sighed in exasperation. He was rapidly becoming more and more lost. It didn't help that every corridor looked the same. He looked at the corridor in front of him, debating whether or not to retrace his footsteps. Suddenly Jack's voice came over the earpiece, startling him.
"What are you doing? Jack hissed down the microphone. "You're nowhere near them." Weiss growled. "You need to go back to where you started." Jack stated. Weiss turned back the way he'd came, resigned to his fate of wandering forever in the sub-basements of SD-6
Sydney walked next to Francie, Vaughn trailing a few feet behind. He'd been falling further and further back as time went on, and Sydney found herself worrying more about him than about her safety. Not a good idea. It pained her to do so, but she refocussed on the situation at hand. Francie led them around one final corner, and the elevators were there. Sydney nearly sobbed in relief. They were one step closer to freedom. She was about to run the final few metres down the hall when she heard footsteps approaching. She glanced over at Francie and Vaughn, and they all crept quietly back around the corner.
Weiss jogged as lightly as he could back down towards the elevators. He had just made it to the front of the elevators when a flash of movement caught his eye. He froze, hoping they hadn't spotted him.
The footsteps stopped, leaving only the sound of people's breathing in Sydney's ears. Vaughn slumped against the wall and closed his eyes. Sydney looked over at Francie, who only shrugged back. Looks like someone was going to have to see what was going on. Sydney looked suggestively at Francie, who shook her head vehemently. Dammit. She took a deep breath, then stepped as calmly as she could around the corner. There, standing at the end of the corridor was…
Weiss turned towards the sound of the footsteps behind him, his hands beginning to raise above his head. He looked up to see…Sydney Bristow. His knees nearly buckled in relief, though he hid it well.
"Oh, good, you're here," he said.
Vaughn's eyes opened in shock at the sound of the voice. He stood up straighter, then rushed around the corner. Weiss and Sydney stood at the end of the hall, Sydney with her back to Vaughn. Weiss looked over Sydney's shoulder to see Vaughn. Sydney looked around, then shot him a relieved smile. Then her eyes widened, and she jogged back around the corner to grab Francie's arm. She dragged Francie back around the corner towards Weiss.
"Francie, this is Agent Weiss. We'll explain later," said Sydney quickly. Weiss nodded in agreement.
"Your father's waiting in the car park for you. We'll sort everything out later, for now let's just get you two out of here," Weiss explained. Sydney frowned.
"The three of us are leaving," she said, her voice brokering no argument. Weiss frowned, then shrugged.
"Whatever, let's go," he said. He hit the elevator button, and they all walked inside.
Author's Note: Thank you again to all the lovely people who read and review (especially Couch- thank you for all your reviews, they really mean a lot to me. And Jade: I don't know whether you're reading this or not, but if you are thank you so much for all your reviews of my other story). There, now I've said enough thank you's to fill and Oscar acceptance speech, I just have one more thing to say: Please please PLEASE review me!!