Could someone please tell me how to do bold and italics? I tried on the
last chapter but it didn't work.
Thanks for the reviews of the last chapter. Feedback (positive/negative/anything so long as it's feedback) would make me really happy so please, please REVIEW!!!!!!!!
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"Didn't I tell you you'd be running around on missions again in no time?" Vaughn asked jokingly as he placed the brown folder on Sydney's desk.
"If this is your idea of 'no time' I'd hate to see what you think does take time" she replied with a smile, purposefully ignoring the documents he had just given her, although she was longing to know where she was going. "Seriously, Vaughn. It's been three weeks. I'm telling you, one more day at this computer and I'll march into Kendall's office and strangle him!"
Vaughn was pretty sure that Sydney was joking, but she said it with such an innocent look on her face that he quickly turned her attention to the task in hand. "You're going to London," he said, opening the folder and taking out a picture of a tall, wiry man with black hair and a thin pointed nose. "This is Jonathan Cauber. He's the manager of this bank." Vaughn pointed to the bank in the background of the photograph. Sydney nodded.
"And you think he has ties to Lloyd?"
"We think so, yes. You remember Kendall said that money had been withdrawn from and account owned by the Alliance members? Well, we've just discovered that less than an hour after that money was taken, money was put into an account in this London bank. Cauber tried to cover it up, but he was a quite careless and we've been able to track the money. We're fairly sure it came from that Alliance account. The only thing is the money deposited in Cauber's bank is only half the amount taken from the Alliance account."
"Then I need to find out if it is the same money, if it was transferred by Lloyd, and if so, what's happened to the rest of the money."
"That's the gist of it. Be prepared though; Cauber won't talk easily, if you find him. He may have fled the country, but he thinks he's covered up the transfer successfully so I'm guessing he'll stay put for now."
Sydney flicked through the other pages in the folder. "Alana Sheldrake?" she asked, when she saw her latest alias.
"Yeah, you're English, and you're there to perform some security checks. He's asked for someone to do that so he should co-operate."
"Right," said Sydney, smiling up at Vaughn. "A normal job." He smiled wistfully at her, understanding that she was still getting used to this life. Sometimes he thought she regretted her decision to come back, but he knew that even if she did she wouldn't say so. Once she had decided to do something, Sydney had a tendency to see it through to the end.
"You leave tomorrow lunchtime," he said, switching their roles back to Agents Vaughn and Bristow (Kendall had decreed, much to Sydney's annoyance, that she must resume the name Bristow while at work, to "avoid confusion". Sydney, in a sudden burst of loathing, had decided that he was trying to point out that she and her husband should behave as though they were merely acquaintances. This notion of Sydney's was not completely unreasonable, as Kendall made his decision five minutes after he had seen Sydney giving Vaughn a quick kiss when she thought no one was looking.)
"Okay. See you later." Seeing Kendall glancing in their direction, Vaughn headed back towards his desk, glancing back to roll his eyes at Sydney as he did so.
* * *
Clothes, make-up, book - not that she would get a chance to read it - comm link, all that other stuff. Sydney grew bored of listing everything she had packed so far.
"That's everything, I think," she muttered to herself, zipping the suitcase closed and pulling it off the bed. Packing used to be an automatic thing but now she had to think carefully and keep a mental list of everything she would need. "I'm so out of practice," she thought.
"Passport." Vaughn said, coming into the room and holding it out to her.
"Oh shit!" Sydney exclaimed, grabbing it from him and shoving it into her hand luggage. "How much would you have killed me if I'd forgotten that?"
He grimaced at her, "A lot."
"What would I do without you?" she said sweetly, stepping closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Guess we'll never know," Vaughn smiled and leaned down to kiss her. Suddenly, Sydney broke off the kiss and pulled away.
"Shit!"
"What now?" Vaughn groaned and pulled her back to him.
"I'm supposed to be going out with Francie tonight. I'll have to call and apologise."
"What are you gonna tell her?"
"I don't know," Sydney sighed, leaning her forehead against Vaughn's shoulder. She looked back up at him. "I can't exactly say I have to go to a teacher's conference in London."
* * *
"Hello?" "Hey Fran, it's me."
"Oh, hey Syd. Are you calling to ask what time we're meeting tonight? Cause, y'know, I told you like fifty million times already."
Sydney took a deep breath.
"Actually, I'm not gonna be able to make it."
"Oh." Francie sounded deflated.
"I'm really sorry," Sydney continued. "It's just. . .well. . . a friend of mine, from work. . . my old work - the bank. . . she's sick, and I need to go visit her." Sydney scowled as she said it, she felt so guilty. This was the worst lie she had told. Recently. Thinking about it she had told far worse lies in the past. But not to a friend. Okay, that wasn't true either; she had lied to Francie and Will many times. But she had never used a "sick friend" as an excuse before, and she hated herself for doing it now.
"Oh my God, is it bad?" Francie sounded worried. Great. First Sydney had cancelled their night out, then she had lied to her about why, and now Francie was concerned about a friend who didn't even exist. "Why didn't I go with teachers-conference-in-London?" thought Sydney.
"Oh no, she'll be fine," Sydney said quickly. "She could just do with some company."
"Oh sure, that's fine. I'm sure she needs you more than me, anyway. I'll do something with Will, and we can go out another time."
"Thanks. I'm really sorry, I'll make it up to you I promise."
Sydney hung up the phone, still despising herself for what she'd done.
"Ready to go?" called Vaughn bringing her suitcase out of their room and standing it by the door.
"Yep," she said and smiled.
Half an hour later Sydney had checked in at the airport and her flight had just been called. She stood up and pulled Vaughn up with her.
"I'll miss you," she said nervously, starting to feel uneasy about her mission. He placed his hands on her shoulders and, ignoring what she had said, replied to what her voice had implied.
"You'll be fine," he said seriously, looking into her troubled brown eyes. She smiled weakly.
"Yeah," she said quietly, looking down. He lifted her chin with his hand, so that she had no choice but to meet his eyes.
"I'll see you on Wednesday," he said. "I'll be here to pick you up." She did not reply, such was her concentration on holding back her tears. Somehow, if she cried, it would make the thought that she might not make it back alive seem more real.
"Syd?" he prompted gently.
"I love you," she said, her voice cracking.
"I love you too," he paused. "Be strong, okay? You're good at this, Sydney, that's why Kendall chose you to do it." She nodded, somewhat reassured by this and the memories of past missions that had been successful. Vaughn gave her hand a gentle squeeze and she bent to pick up her hang luggage. She laughed to cover her anxiety.
"Bye," she said, as cheerfully as she could and then turned and walked to the boarding gate.
"Goodbye," Vaughn said, when she was out of earshot.
* * *
Sydney paid the taxi driver and found herself standing outside an old, magnificent building in the centre of London. She gazed up at the grey structure, as heavy raindrops began to fall. As if by magic, the people around her produced black umbrellas and carried on with their dismal walk back to their offices. With forced confidence, she pushed open the heavy glass door and walked up to the front desk.
"I need to see Mr Cauber," she said, her English accent flawless.
"Do you have an appointment?" asked the secretary, looking up from a magazine.
"Yes. My name is Alana Sheldrake."
"Wait right here please." The secretary, whose name-badge declared her to be Tessa Anthony, went to find Cauber, her heels clicking on the polished floor with every step. After a few minutes she returned with the man from the photograph. He was indeed tall and wiry and had a look of meanness about him that Sydney picked up on immediately.
"Alana Sheldrake?"
"Yes. And you are Mr Cauber?" Sydney feigned innocence as she held out her hand. He shook it and then answered her gruffly.
"Yes. Understand that I have very high security here, and that this," here he paused and plucked the comm link from her ear, "is not allowed."
Sydney felt a shiver run up her spine and back in LA Vaughn gripped the desk, the colour drained from his face.
"You will allow me to contact my assistant with my phone, then?" she asked, forcing herself to retain her confidence.
"I am afraid not," he said, searching her face for a reaction. "He knows," she thought, but she did not give away anything in her face. Satisfied, for the moment, Cauber turned and strode away, Sydney following. He tossed the comm link outside as he passed a window. Sydney followed him around corners, up flights of stairs and along identical corridors, memorising every inch of the way. It occurred to her that he might be purposely leading her along an over-complicated route but then she realised that if he did not trust her, he would not even take her this far.
"I keep the records of every transaction made in this room," he said, pushing open a blue door and escorting Sydney inside.
"I would like to see them, please," she said, in a business-like voice. He handed her a key to a filing cabinet and she began to open drawers and pull out folders. She knew the date she was looking for but she wanted to make it look as though this was a random process. Eventually, she came to the piece of paper marked June 10th 2003. The money supposedly transferred by Lloyd was listed but there was no record of whose money it was. She tuned to him.
"There is a problem with your records, sir."
"What?" he asked, turning sharply to her.
"This one is not complete," she showed it to him, but kept it far enough away that she would have the upper hand if he attempted to take it from her.
"It's a mistake," he said quickly. "I cannot think how it happened." Sydney looked at him sternly, now completely in role.
"You cannot afford to have mistakes like this. It is in my power to report you for this, and believe me; you do not want that to happen. Now, tell me who transferred this money."
Cauber looked distressed, and Sydney felt sorry for him. It was obvious that he had never been in this kind of situation before, and that was unable to handle it. She decided that if he co-operated she would not be too harsh on him.
"Look," she said more gently, and reverting back to her real voice, "I know about Lloyd. I know he took the money from the Alliance account and you're keeping some of it for him. It'll be much easier for you if you just tell me what I want to know."
He looked down at his feet and made no reply. Sydney sighed and took out a pair of handcuffs.
"I'm taking you back to LA where you'll be kept in CIA custody. Maybe you'll talk to some of the less friendly interrogators there." At the word interrogators, Cauber visibly shuddered and Sydney's threat made him cave in, as she had known it would.
"Alright, alright, I'll talk. What do you want to know?" he asked, his voice rising in panic.
"Calm down. I just want to ask you a few questions. So am I right that the money here was taken from the Alliance account by Lloyd?"
"Yes."
"But not all of it?"
"No."
"You're going to have to give better answers that that," Sydney said, taking out the handcuffs again.
"Okay! I'll tell you anything you want, I swear!"
"Good. Now, where's the rest of the money?"
"He. . . he gave it to the others. The other people. . . who work for him."
"How many? What are their names? WHERE ARE THEY?" Sydney knew she had to keep this man afraid of her to keep him talking.
"Four. There are four others. I don't know who they are, only Lloyd knows."
"Okay, so what are they doing for him?"
"They're all looking after something," he hesitated. "Something important to him"
Sydney inhaled sharply. This next question was important, and it was vital that she got the answer.
"What are they looking after?"
Silence.
"Cauber. You've said too much already. If you don't tell me, I will take you back to CIA custody where they will torture it out of you."
"There are four disks. Each one of them contains information about Lloyd - what he's planning to do, where his resources are, that kinda stuff. Each of the others is holding one of the disks."
"If we find the disks, will we be able to stop Lloyd?"
"Maybe. They have to be in a specific order."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I was never told."
"WHY?"
"I don't know! I don't. . . I don't." Cauber sank down on the floor, his head in his hands. "I told you everything I know, please just go."
Sydney thought for a while and then decided that he was telling the truth. She regarded him sadly. The poor man had just been through what was probably the most traumatic experience of his life, although having said that, Sydney had no idea what techniques Lloyd had employed to convince Cauber to work for him.
She turned to leave and, just before she opened the door, a wave of pity over-came her and she turned back to him.
"Thank you," she said, and left. She thought about it during her flight back. She had never thanked someone for information before, usually because she had such a hard time getting it that she ended up beating it out of them, and when she let them get off as easily as Cauber had done, she was more owed than owing.
* * *
A few days later, Sydney was back in the Ops Centre, standing behind Vaughn as he showed her something on his computer screen.
"Agent Bristow, Agent Vaughn. There's someone I'd like you two to meet." Sydney and Vaughn turned to see Kendall standing behind them with a young woman.
"This is Agent Marie Henley. She will be working with the two of you from now on."
TBC
Thanks for the reviews of the last chapter. Feedback (positive/negative/anything so long as it's feedback) would make me really happy so please, please REVIEW!!!!!!!!
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Didn't I tell you you'd be running around on missions again in no time?" Vaughn asked jokingly as he placed the brown folder on Sydney's desk.
"If this is your idea of 'no time' I'd hate to see what you think does take time" she replied with a smile, purposefully ignoring the documents he had just given her, although she was longing to know where she was going. "Seriously, Vaughn. It's been three weeks. I'm telling you, one more day at this computer and I'll march into Kendall's office and strangle him!"
Vaughn was pretty sure that Sydney was joking, but she said it with such an innocent look on her face that he quickly turned her attention to the task in hand. "You're going to London," he said, opening the folder and taking out a picture of a tall, wiry man with black hair and a thin pointed nose. "This is Jonathan Cauber. He's the manager of this bank." Vaughn pointed to the bank in the background of the photograph. Sydney nodded.
"And you think he has ties to Lloyd?"
"We think so, yes. You remember Kendall said that money had been withdrawn from and account owned by the Alliance members? Well, we've just discovered that less than an hour after that money was taken, money was put into an account in this London bank. Cauber tried to cover it up, but he was a quite careless and we've been able to track the money. We're fairly sure it came from that Alliance account. The only thing is the money deposited in Cauber's bank is only half the amount taken from the Alliance account."
"Then I need to find out if it is the same money, if it was transferred by Lloyd, and if so, what's happened to the rest of the money."
"That's the gist of it. Be prepared though; Cauber won't talk easily, if you find him. He may have fled the country, but he thinks he's covered up the transfer successfully so I'm guessing he'll stay put for now."
Sydney flicked through the other pages in the folder. "Alana Sheldrake?" she asked, when she saw her latest alias.
"Yeah, you're English, and you're there to perform some security checks. He's asked for someone to do that so he should co-operate."
"Right," said Sydney, smiling up at Vaughn. "A normal job." He smiled wistfully at her, understanding that she was still getting used to this life. Sometimes he thought she regretted her decision to come back, but he knew that even if she did she wouldn't say so. Once she had decided to do something, Sydney had a tendency to see it through to the end.
"You leave tomorrow lunchtime," he said, switching their roles back to Agents Vaughn and Bristow (Kendall had decreed, much to Sydney's annoyance, that she must resume the name Bristow while at work, to "avoid confusion". Sydney, in a sudden burst of loathing, had decided that he was trying to point out that she and her husband should behave as though they were merely acquaintances. This notion of Sydney's was not completely unreasonable, as Kendall made his decision five minutes after he had seen Sydney giving Vaughn a quick kiss when she thought no one was looking.)
"Okay. See you later." Seeing Kendall glancing in their direction, Vaughn headed back towards his desk, glancing back to roll his eyes at Sydney as he did so.
* * *
Clothes, make-up, book - not that she would get a chance to read it - comm link, all that other stuff. Sydney grew bored of listing everything she had packed so far.
"That's everything, I think," she muttered to herself, zipping the suitcase closed and pulling it off the bed. Packing used to be an automatic thing but now she had to think carefully and keep a mental list of everything she would need. "I'm so out of practice," she thought.
"Passport." Vaughn said, coming into the room and holding it out to her.
"Oh shit!" Sydney exclaimed, grabbing it from him and shoving it into her hand luggage. "How much would you have killed me if I'd forgotten that?"
He grimaced at her, "A lot."
"What would I do without you?" she said sweetly, stepping closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Guess we'll never know," Vaughn smiled and leaned down to kiss her. Suddenly, Sydney broke off the kiss and pulled away.
"Shit!"
"What now?" Vaughn groaned and pulled her back to him.
"I'm supposed to be going out with Francie tonight. I'll have to call and apologise."
"What are you gonna tell her?"
"I don't know," Sydney sighed, leaning her forehead against Vaughn's shoulder. She looked back up at him. "I can't exactly say I have to go to a teacher's conference in London."
* * *
"Hello?" "Hey Fran, it's me."
"Oh, hey Syd. Are you calling to ask what time we're meeting tonight? Cause, y'know, I told you like fifty million times already."
Sydney took a deep breath.
"Actually, I'm not gonna be able to make it."
"Oh." Francie sounded deflated.
"I'm really sorry," Sydney continued. "It's just. . .well. . . a friend of mine, from work. . . my old work - the bank. . . she's sick, and I need to go visit her." Sydney scowled as she said it, she felt so guilty. This was the worst lie she had told. Recently. Thinking about it she had told far worse lies in the past. But not to a friend. Okay, that wasn't true either; she had lied to Francie and Will many times. But she had never used a "sick friend" as an excuse before, and she hated herself for doing it now.
"Oh my God, is it bad?" Francie sounded worried. Great. First Sydney had cancelled their night out, then she had lied to her about why, and now Francie was concerned about a friend who didn't even exist. "Why didn't I go with teachers-conference-in-London?" thought Sydney.
"Oh no, she'll be fine," Sydney said quickly. "She could just do with some company."
"Oh sure, that's fine. I'm sure she needs you more than me, anyway. I'll do something with Will, and we can go out another time."
"Thanks. I'm really sorry, I'll make it up to you I promise."
Sydney hung up the phone, still despising herself for what she'd done.
"Ready to go?" called Vaughn bringing her suitcase out of their room and standing it by the door.
"Yep," she said and smiled.
Half an hour later Sydney had checked in at the airport and her flight had just been called. She stood up and pulled Vaughn up with her.
"I'll miss you," she said nervously, starting to feel uneasy about her mission. He placed his hands on her shoulders and, ignoring what she had said, replied to what her voice had implied.
"You'll be fine," he said seriously, looking into her troubled brown eyes. She smiled weakly.
"Yeah," she said quietly, looking down. He lifted her chin with his hand, so that she had no choice but to meet his eyes.
"I'll see you on Wednesday," he said. "I'll be here to pick you up." She did not reply, such was her concentration on holding back her tears. Somehow, if she cried, it would make the thought that she might not make it back alive seem more real.
"Syd?" he prompted gently.
"I love you," she said, her voice cracking.
"I love you too," he paused. "Be strong, okay? You're good at this, Sydney, that's why Kendall chose you to do it." She nodded, somewhat reassured by this and the memories of past missions that had been successful. Vaughn gave her hand a gentle squeeze and she bent to pick up her hang luggage. She laughed to cover her anxiety.
"Bye," she said, as cheerfully as she could and then turned and walked to the boarding gate.
"Goodbye," Vaughn said, when she was out of earshot.
* * *
Sydney paid the taxi driver and found herself standing outside an old, magnificent building in the centre of London. She gazed up at the grey structure, as heavy raindrops began to fall. As if by magic, the people around her produced black umbrellas and carried on with their dismal walk back to their offices. With forced confidence, she pushed open the heavy glass door and walked up to the front desk.
"I need to see Mr Cauber," she said, her English accent flawless.
"Do you have an appointment?" asked the secretary, looking up from a magazine.
"Yes. My name is Alana Sheldrake."
"Wait right here please." The secretary, whose name-badge declared her to be Tessa Anthony, went to find Cauber, her heels clicking on the polished floor with every step. After a few minutes she returned with the man from the photograph. He was indeed tall and wiry and had a look of meanness about him that Sydney picked up on immediately.
"Alana Sheldrake?"
"Yes. And you are Mr Cauber?" Sydney feigned innocence as she held out her hand. He shook it and then answered her gruffly.
"Yes. Understand that I have very high security here, and that this," here he paused and plucked the comm link from her ear, "is not allowed."
Sydney felt a shiver run up her spine and back in LA Vaughn gripped the desk, the colour drained from his face.
"You will allow me to contact my assistant with my phone, then?" she asked, forcing herself to retain her confidence.
"I am afraid not," he said, searching her face for a reaction. "He knows," she thought, but she did not give away anything in her face. Satisfied, for the moment, Cauber turned and strode away, Sydney following. He tossed the comm link outside as he passed a window. Sydney followed him around corners, up flights of stairs and along identical corridors, memorising every inch of the way. It occurred to her that he might be purposely leading her along an over-complicated route but then she realised that if he did not trust her, he would not even take her this far.
"I keep the records of every transaction made in this room," he said, pushing open a blue door and escorting Sydney inside.
"I would like to see them, please," she said, in a business-like voice. He handed her a key to a filing cabinet and she began to open drawers and pull out folders. She knew the date she was looking for but she wanted to make it look as though this was a random process. Eventually, she came to the piece of paper marked June 10th 2003. The money supposedly transferred by Lloyd was listed but there was no record of whose money it was. She tuned to him.
"There is a problem with your records, sir."
"What?" he asked, turning sharply to her.
"This one is not complete," she showed it to him, but kept it far enough away that she would have the upper hand if he attempted to take it from her.
"It's a mistake," he said quickly. "I cannot think how it happened." Sydney looked at him sternly, now completely in role.
"You cannot afford to have mistakes like this. It is in my power to report you for this, and believe me; you do not want that to happen. Now, tell me who transferred this money."
Cauber looked distressed, and Sydney felt sorry for him. It was obvious that he had never been in this kind of situation before, and that was unable to handle it. She decided that if he co-operated she would not be too harsh on him.
"Look," she said more gently, and reverting back to her real voice, "I know about Lloyd. I know he took the money from the Alliance account and you're keeping some of it for him. It'll be much easier for you if you just tell me what I want to know."
He looked down at his feet and made no reply. Sydney sighed and took out a pair of handcuffs.
"I'm taking you back to LA where you'll be kept in CIA custody. Maybe you'll talk to some of the less friendly interrogators there." At the word interrogators, Cauber visibly shuddered and Sydney's threat made him cave in, as she had known it would.
"Alright, alright, I'll talk. What do you want to know?" he asked, his voice rising in panic.
"Calm down. I just want to ask you a few questions. So am I right that the money here was taken from the Alliance account by Lloyd?"
"Yes."
"But not all of it?"
"No."
"You're going to have to give better answers that that," Sydney said, taking out the handcuffs again.
"Okay! I'll tell you anything you want, I swear!"
"Good. Now, where's the rest of the money?"
"He. . . he gave it to the others. The other people. . . who work for him."
"How many? What are their names? WHERE ARE THEY?" Sydney knew she had to keep this man afraid of her to keep him talking.
"Four. There are four others. I don't know who they are, only Lloyd knows."
"Okay, so what are they doing for him?"
"They're all looking after something," he hesitated. "Something important to him"
Sydney inhaled sharply. This next question was important, and it was vital that she got the answer.
"What are they looking after?"
Silence.
"Cauber. You've said too much already. If you don't tell me, I will take you back to CIA custody where they will torture it out of you."
"There are four disks. Each one of them contains information about Lloyd - what he's planning to do, where his resources are, that kinda stuff. Each of the others is holding one of the disks."
"If we find the disks, will we be able to stop Lloyd?"
"Maybe. They have to be in a specific order."
"Why?"
"I don't know. I was never told."
"WHY?"
"I don't know! I don't. . . I don't." Cauber sank down on the floor, his head in his hands. "I told you everything I know, please just go."
Sydney thought for a while and then decided that he was telling the truth. She regarded him sadly. The poor man had just been through what was probably the most traumatic experience of his life, although having said that, Sydney had no idea what techniques Lloyd had employed to convince Cauber to work for him.
She turned to leave and, just before she opened the door, a wave of pity over-came her and she turned back to him.
"Thank you," she said, and left. She thought about it during her flight back. She had never thanked someone for information before, usually because she had such a hard time getting it that she ended up beating it out of them, and when she let them get off as easily as Cauber had done, she was more owed than owing.
* * *
A few days later, Sydney was back in the Ops Centre, standing behind Vaughn as he showed her something on his computer screen.
"Agent Bristow, Agent Vaughn. There's someone I'd like you two to meet." Sydney and Vaughn turned to see Kendall standing behind them with a young woman.
"This is Agent Marie Henley. She will be working with the two of you from now on."
TBC