Firstly, thanks for the reviews (as ever).
Ryanne, I decided on Agent Bristow because I thought it would be much less confusing than having two Agent Vaughns. I realise now that I didn't handle the CIA's behaviour towards Syd and Vaughn being married very well, I'll try to clear that up a bit in this chapter - thanks for pointing it out. Oh and yeah, you're right, Francie thinks Sydney used to work in a bank. I've read a few spoilers (due to reading far too much fanfiction for my own good) so I kinda know that something's gonna happen with Francie but I'm in the UK and the last ep I saw was Salvation so my fic goes from there.
Second, people reading this, please read my other fic "My Immortal". I'm kinda proud of it cause I think it's my best one (even though I wrote it at 2:00 am when I couldn't sleep!) I know it's not that good compared to other stuff here, the standard of writing here continues to amaze me!
Anyways, before this A/N gets longer than the chapter itself, please read, enjoy, review :)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Sydney, can I talk to you about something?" Will glanced over his shoulder as he spoke, uneasiness etched on his face.
"Sure," Sydney said, looking at him a little worriedly. Francie and Will were helping Sydney to re-decorate her kitchen as she was on a rare week- long break from the CIA. Francie had just left the room, taking boxes full of kitchen utensils, an unused kettle balanced precariously on top of a toaster ensuring that Francie kept her eyes on the things she was holding rather than where she was going. The kettle had been a wedding present from some well meaning, but tasteless, friends of Vaughn's but neither Sydney nor Vaughn had had the heart to throw it away.
"You know that phone call you got. . . when we were having dinner. . ." said Will, skirting around his point. Sydney was surprised. That evening had been about three weeks ago, and she had assumed that if Will had harboured any suspicion of her, he would have confronted her about it long ago.
"Yeah?" she asked innocently.
"Are you working for the CIA again?" he asked quickly, only just resisting the temptation to screw his eyes tightly shut before he had to see her reaction. Sydney took a few seconds to think about how to answer his question. Had Will been building up to asking her about this for three weeks? Her delay was enough of an answer for the ex-journalist. He knew only too well that silence could speak louder than words. Realising that he knew the truth anyway, Sydney decided to explain.
Just as she opened her mouth to speak, they were interrupted by a loud crash immediately followed by a scream as Francie miscalculated the distance to the living room and went straight into a wall.
"I'm okay!" she called, disentangling herself from the various pots and pans under which she was buried.
"Are you hurt?" asked Sydney, worried by the dramatic crashing and clanging of metal on metal she had heard from the kitchen.
"Nothing a few hours exposure to paint fumes won't cure," Francie replied brightly.
Sydney bent down and began to pick up everything Francie had dropped. She was glad to get out of a potentially uncomfortable situation with Will, but decided to tell him the truth the next time they were alone.
* * *
A week later, with the knowledge that she had a newly decorated kitchen and that having undertaken none of the decorating himself, Vaughn would be taking on the tedious task of putting everything back into place, Sydney returned to the CIA.
"Morning, Sydney," said Marie shyly, but with a big smile on her face. She had settled in very well at her new job, but she still looked up to Sydney and was always shy around her, thinking that she was in some way inferior.
"Hey Marie," Sydney smiled, helping herself to a coffee and following Marie over to their desks. "You're looking very happy this morning," she remarked as she switched on her computer and placed the cup of coffee on her desk.
Marie sat down opposite Sydney and switched her own computer on before replying.
"My boyfriend's taking me on holiday tomorrow," she grinned.
"Have you asked Kendall? Where are you going?" Sydney was enthusiastic to share in her friend's happiness.
"Yeah. He said I've been working so hard since I got here that I deserve a break," Sydney raised an eyebrow. She had had to beg and plead with Kendall to get the last week off. She wondered briefly why Marie was such a definite favourite of his, but then she thought, more realistically, that it was because she could be spared that Marie was allowed to have time off. "I have no idea where we're going. Mark - that's my boyfriend - wants to keep it a surprise. It's so romantic!"
Sydney nodded in agreement. "Speaking of," she said standing up to give Vaughn a hug, though they had parted barely ten minutes ago.
"I don't know where you two think you are," said Kendall coming up angrily to the little group of agents who were doing anything but their jobs, "but some of us, and by that I mean you three, have work to do. And some of us," here he paused dramatically and glanced at Marie, "will not be getting holidays if we don't do any work today."
Scared, Marie turned to her computer, willing to look at anything rather than at Kendall. Sydney and Vaughn rolled their eyes, each daring the other to let out the laughter they were both holding in. Sydney broke first and had to bite her lip to stop herself from giggling like a little girl and Vaughn shot her a triumphant glance as he returned to his desk.
* * *
"Syd!" Vaughn exclaimed, rushing up to her desk. "We've found it! We've traced the disk!
"Really?" Sydney almost knocked over her coffee - her third cup of the day - as she jumped up from her seat. "What? How?"
"Don't ask me how I did it, I've lost track everything I've done on that search." (A/N: yes, that is just me being too lazy to come up with a plausible explanation for how they found it. You'll have to get used to that with this fic, I'm afraid. This writing about missions and the like is hard! I'll do my best but you may have to cope with a few more sudden bursts of selective amnesia)
"It doesn't matter, anyway." Sydney quickly brushed the matter aside and continued questioning Vaughn. "Where is it? Are we going to get it?"
"It's been taken to a vault in a museum in Luxembourg. I've only just found this out, I need to show it to Kendall before anything gets decided." Vaughn couldn't help smiling at Sydney's impatience. Her enthusiasm was one of the things that had first attracted him to her. Even at their first meeting in the warehouse she had been bubbling over with anticipation and eagerness for action and as their friendship grew steadily stronger and developed into love, her enthusiasm had only risen to new heights.
* * *
"Marie, what's the matter?" Sydney asked, when Marie returned from making her phone call. They were leaving for Luxembourg in a few hours and Marie had had to cancel her holiday with Mark. She made a feeble attempt to smile and brush away the tears that were falling steadily down her face.
"I told Mark that I couldn't go on holiday with him anymore. He asked me why but I couldn't tell him the truth so I said I had to work. Then he said I should just come anyway and I said no and he got angry and said he'd had this planned for ages and I was ruining everything. . . and then I said that if he knew what kind of stuff I did at work maybe he'd thank me," Sydney was startled. She had said something similar to Will before he knew what she really did. Marie continued, between sniffs and sobs. "So then he got even more angry and said it looked like I valued my job more than my relationship and I said I'd call him when I got back from the business trip. Then he just put down the phone." Sydney put her arms around Marie and let the younger girl cry on her shoulder for a moment. In a few hours they would need to have a strictly professional relationship, but for now they could be friends.
Kendall interrupted them, the ever-present frown deeply engraved on his face.
"Agent Bristow, my office now," he barked. Sydney glanced once more at Marie before following Kendall. "Agent Vaughn, I want to speak with you please," he said as they passed Vaughn. Vaughn looked bewildered, but followed next to Sydney.
"How come I get an 'Agent Bristow, my office now,' and you get a polite request?" she teased, quietly enough that Kendall would not hear them
"Because you're so much more disobedient than me?" Vaughn replied innocently.
When they entered his office, Kendall did not delay but went straight to his point.
"Since you do not live here, I assume that you two have a house which you live in together," Sydney looked at Vaughn, wondering where this was going. He looked back at her equally confused. "Your relationship here must be completely professional, in future will you please use your house to be married in and your place of work to be handler and asset in. Recently, the two of you have been behaving in an entirely inappropriate manner and if you cannot restrain yourselves I will assign you, Agent Vaughn, to another case and it may not be this side of the country. Am I making myself clear?"
Sydney glared at Kendall. It wasn't fair that he could dictate their behaviour like this but there was nothing either of them could do about it.
"Yes sir, we understand," said Vaughn, keeping his face straight although he was angry inside.
"Agent Bristow?" Kendall was clearly waiting for her to make a response. She nodded slowly and then left to prepare for the mission.
* * *
"Marie!" Sydney hissed, trying to get her attention. Marie was engrossed in disconnecting a security alarm without alerting anyone to their presence, a frown of concentration on her face. Marie finished and then looked up enquiringly, just in time for Sydney to motion silently for Marie to stay still. Marie flattened herself against the wall and held her breath. Sydney was further back, in the shadows - if the security guard came past he would see Marie immediately but Sydney was well hidden. As the guard's footsteps faded, Marie relaxed. They stayed there without moving for several minutes while they assessed the guard's progress back and forth, deciding how best to get past unnoticed. Sydney was creeping stealthily forwards. She moved so noiselessly that Marie didn't notice until she was at her side, her mouth next to Marie's ear.
"Move quickly and quietly, don't turn around," she whispered, slipping past Marie so that she was nearly in the corridor. Marie was ready to follow at Sydney's order. "Now." Sydney's hushed command set Marie's heart racing. This was her first mission and her immense fear combined with a desperation to succeed was almost enough emotion to knock her off her feet. They made it around the corner without major mis-hap and leaned against a wall to catch their breath. Sydney grinned at Marie, the blood coursing through her veins filling her with exhilaration and excited nervousness. She had forgotten this feeling. Before she knew the truth about SD-6, it was one of the things she loved most about her job but when she was working to bring down Sloane and the Alliance a part of her had hated it, and the other part had hated herself for loving it. Now she was free to enjoy the rush of adrenaline that surged through her and for a few moments she forgot that she hated this life, she forgot that as soon she was finished with Lloyd she would be resuming her life as Mrs Vaughn The Teacher, and Agent Bristow The CIA's Best Spy would be laid to rest for the final time.
Once they had recovered from their fast but silent sprint down the long corridor and around the corner, Sydney and Marie turned their attention to the door that led to the vault. The security guard by the door had his back to them. Sydney nodded at Marie, and Marie raised the tranquilliser gun in a shaking hand. She aimed and swallowed to soothe her dry throat. Hand still shaking violently from the fear and pressure she was under, she fired. Her hand was so shaky that she very nearly missed, but she had been trained well and the guard went down, never knowing who or what had hit him. Sydney ran up to him and grabbed the key card out of his pocket. She pushed it into the slot next to the door and then held the door open for Marie before removing the card. Marie was still recovering from her experience with the tranquilliser gun and only stared wide-eyed at her friend in response to Sydney's whispered "Well done." They hurried along the hallway and when they came to another door, Sydney set up her phone to get the code they would need to enter. Years of practice meant that Sydney did this with great ease but instinct meant that she glanced over her shoulder every few seconds, even though Marie was keeping watch a few metres away. Eventually, Sydney had all five numbers and called Marie back to her.
"Syd, hurry up. They've got the surveillance back." Vaughn's voice came to her over the comm link and she could not help the sharp intake of breath when she heard what he said. Sydney yanked the door open and pulled Marie through with her. They ran to the door of the vault and began to set up the explosives they were going to use to blow open the door. They worked quickly and efficiently and were soon ready. They stepped back and Sydney pushed the detonator. She flinched as the door was blown apart and Marie instinctively brought her arms up over her head.
"Okay, we're in," Sydney informed Vaughn.
"Right. Shutting down the lock system in three. . . two. . . one. You guys have two minutes to find the disk and get out of there." The CIA had found out that everything in the museum vault was locked away, but that all the locks were operated by the same system. A system that could be temporarily shut down by the CIA. However, exactly two minutes after it was shut down the vault room would be filled with a poisonous gas - a gas that would kill the two women in seconds.
Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. . . Sydney counted in her head without even thinking about it.
Sydney and Marie began to pull open the white drawers that occupied the entire vault. They worked swiftly but methodically, yanking open drawers, not bothering to close them when they saw the contents.
Fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty. One minute up.
Sydney wrenched open a drawer and rifled through the contents. "Why do I feel like I'm breaking into someone's house and going through their private stuff?" she thought to herself, with a slight smile.
Eighty-nine, ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two. . .
"Got it!" Marie turned around, disk in hand, to grin triumphantly at Sydney.
"Great. Lets get out," Sydney said, already running out of the vault. Marie followed, stuffing the disk into her bag as she ran. They did not stop until they were a safe distance from the vault. When they allowed themselves time to recuperate, Sydney glanced at Marie and noticed the way her eyes sparkled. Her pride and happiness was obvious in her face and Sydney smiled at her. Marie had evidently forgotten about her fight with Mark. That was what the adrenaline rush would do to you, Sydney thought.
* * *
A few days later, Sydney and Marie were at their desks chatting and exchanging news of their weekends. Marie had called Mark as soon as they had returned from Luxembourg and they had spent the weekend together, both profusely apologetic for their first major argument. Sydney had spent the weekend relaxing with Vaughn and helping Francie out at the restaurant. Moments later they were called to a meeting. Jack Bristow had spent the entire weekend analysing the disk and had made great progress with the case.
"Well done Agent Bristow, Agent Henley," he said in his usual gruff manner. "The disk you brought back is, in fact, disk one. It contains information on Lloyd, his associates, his plans. However, this information is only partial. I'm assuming that this is why there are three other disks. Each one contains some of the information, ensuring that none of Lloyd's associates could do him any harm. Very clever really. The disk also contains part of a code. We'll need the other three disks to complete the code, of course, and we have no idea what it's for but this is a good start."
Ryanne, I decided on Agent Bristow because I thought it would be much less confusing than having two Agent Vaughns. I realise now that I didn't handle the CIA's behaviour towards Syd and Vaughn being married very well, I'll try to clear that up a bit in this chapter - thanks for pointing it out. Oh and yeah, you're right, Francie thinks Sydney used to work in a bank. I've read a few spoilers (due to reading far too much fanfiction for my own good) so I kinda know that something's gonna happen with Francie but I'm in the UK and the last ep I saw was Salvation so my fic goes from there.
Second, people reading this, please read my other fic "My Immortal". I'm kinda proud of it cause I think it's my best one (even though I wrote it at 2:00 am when I couldn't sleep!) I know it's not that good compared to other stuff here, the standard of writing here continues to amaze me!
Anyways, before this A/N gets longer than the chapter itself, please read, enjoy, review :)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Sydney, can I talk to you about something?" Will glanced over his shoulder as he spoke, uneasiness etched on his face.
"Sure," Sydney said, looking at him a little worriedly. Francie and Will were helping Sydney to re-decorate her kitchen as she was on a rare week- long break from the CIA. Francie had just left the room, taking boxes full of kitchen utensils, an unused kettle balanced precariously on top of a toaster ensuring that Francie kept her eyes on the things she was holding rather than where she was going. The kettle had been a wedding present from some well meaning, but tasteless, friends of Vaughn's but neither Sydney nor Vaughn had had the heart to throw it away.
"You know that phone call you got. . . when we were having dinner. . ." said Will, skirting around his point. Sydney was surprised. That evening had been about three weeks ago, and she had assumed that if Will had harboured any suspicion of her, he would have confronted her about it long ago.
"Yeah?" she asked innocently.
"Are you working for the CIA again?" he asked quickly, only just resisting the temptation to screw his eyes tightly shut before he had to see her reaction. Sydney took a few seconds to think about how to answer his question. Had Will been building up to asking her about this for three weeks? Her delay was enough of an answer for the ex-journalist. He knew only too well that silence could speak louder than words. Realising that he knew the truth anyway, Sydney decided to explain.
Just as she opened her mouth to speak, they were interrupted by a loud crash immediately followed by a scream as Francie miscalculated the distance to the living room and went straight into a wall.
"I'm okay!" she called, disentangling herself from the various pots and pans under which she was buried.
"Are you hurt?" asked Sydney, worried by the dramatic crashing and clanging of metal on metal she had heard from the kitchen.
"Nothing a few hours exposure to paint fumes won't cure," Francie replied brightly.
Sydney bent down and began to pick up everything Francie had dropped. She was glad to get out of a potentially uncomfortable situation with Will, but decided to tell him the truth the next time they were alone.
* * *
A week later, with the knowledge that she had a newly decorated kitchen and that having undertaken none of the decorating himself, Vaughn would be taking on the tedious task of putting everything back into place, Sydney returned to the CIA.
"Morning, Sydney," said Marie shyly, but with a big smile on her face. She had settled in very well at her new job, but she still looked up to Sydney and was always shy around her, thinking that she was in some way inferior.
"Hey Marie," Sydney smiled, helping herself to a coffee and following Marie over to their desks. "You're looking very happy this morning," she remarked as she switched on her computer and placed the cup of coffee on her desk.
Marie sat down opposite Sydney and switched her own computer on before replying.
"My boyfriend's taking me on holiday tomorrow," she grinned.
"Have you asked Kendall? Where are you going?" Sydney was enthusiastic to share in her friend's happiness.
"Yeah. He said I've been working so hard since I got here that I deserve a break," Sydney raised an eyebrow. She had had to beg and plead with Kendall to get the last week off. She wondered briefly why Marie was such a definite favourite of his, but then she thought, more realistically, that it was because she could be spared that Marie was allowed to have time off. "I have no idea where we're going. Mark - that's my boyfriend - wants to keep it a surprise. It's so romantic!"
Sydney nodded in agreement. "Speaking of," she said standing up to give Vaughn a hug, though they had parted barely ten minutes ago.
"I don't know where you two think you are," said Kendall coming up angrily to the little group of agents who were doing anything but their jobs, "but some of us, and by that I mean you three, have work to do. And some of us," here he paused dramatically and glanced at Marie, "will not be getting holidays if we don't do any work today."
Scared, Marie turned to her computer, willing to look at anything rather than at Kendall. Sydney and Vaughn rolled their eyes, each daring the other to let out the laughter they were both holding in. Sydney broke first and had to bite her lip to stop herself from giggling like a little girl and Vaughn shot her a triumphant glance as he returned to his desk.
* * *
"Syd!" Vaughn exclaimed, rushing up to her desk. "We've found it! We've traced the disk!
"Really?" Sydney almost knocked over her coffee - her third cup of the day - as she jumped up from her seat. "What? How?"
"Don't ask me how I did it, I've lost track everything I've done on that search." (A/N: yes, that is just me being too lazy to come up with a plausible explanation for how they found it. You'll have to get used to that with this fic, I'm afraid. This writing about missions and the like is hard! I'll do my best but you may have to cope with a few more sudden bursts of selective amnesia)
"It doesn't matter, anyway." Sydney quickly brushed the matter aside and continued questioning Vaughn. "Where is it? Are we going to get it?"
"It's been taken to a vault in a museum in Luxembourg. I've only just found this out, I need to show it to Kendall before anything gets decided." Vaughn couldn't help smiling at Sydney's impatience. Her enthusiasm was one of the things that had first attracted him to her. Even at their first meeting in the warehouse she had been bubbling over with anticipation and eagerness for action and as their friendship grew steadily stronger and developed into love, her enthusiasm had only risen to new heights.
* * *
"Marie, what's the matter?" Sydney asked, when Marie returned from making her phone call. They were leaving for Luxembourg in a few hours and Marie had had to cancel her holiday with Mark. She made a feeble attempt to smile and brush away the tears that were falling steadily down her face.
"I told Mark that I couldn't go on holiday with him anymore. He asked me why but I couldn't tell him the truth so I said I had to work. Then he said I should just come anyway and I said no and he got angry and said he'd had this planned for ages and I was ruining everything. . . and then I said that if he knew what kind of stuff I did at work maybe he'd thank me," Sydney was startled. She had said something similar to Will before he knew what she really did. Marie continued, between sniffs and sobs. "So then he got even more angry and said it looked like I valued my job more than my relationship and I said I'd call him when I got back from the business trip. Then he just put down the phone." Sydney put her arms around Marie and let the younger girl cry on her shoulder for a moment. In a few hours they would need to have a strictly professional relationship, but for now they could be friends.
Kendall interrupted them, the ever-present frown deeply engraved on his face.
"Agent Bristow, my office now," he barked. Sydney glanced once more at Marie before following Kendall. "Agent Vaughn, I want to speak with you please," he said as they passed Vaughn. Vaughn looked bewildered, but followed next to Sydney.
"How come I get an 'Agent Bristow, my office now,' and you get a polite request?" she teased, quietly enough that Kendall would not hear them
"Because you're so much more disobedient than me?" Vaughn replied innocently.
When they entered his office, Kendall did not delay but went straight to his point.
"Since you do not live here, I assume that you two have a house which you live in together," Sydney looked at Vaughn, wondering where this was going. He looked back at her equally confused. "Your relationship here must be completely professional, in future will you please use your house to be married in and your place of work to be handler and asset in. Recently, the two of you have been behaving in an entirely inappropriate manner and if you cannot restrain yourselves I will assign you, Agent Vaughn, to another case and it may not be this side of the country. Am I making myself clear?"
Sydney glared at Kendall. It wasn't fair that he could dictate their behaviour like this but there was nothing either of them could do about it.
"Yes sir, we understand," said Vaughn, keeping his face straight although he was angry inside.
"Agent Bristow?" Kendall was clearly waiting for her to make a response. She nodded slowly and then left to prepare for the mission.
* * *
"Marie!" Sydney hissed, trying to get her attention. Marie was engrossed in disconnecting a security alarm without alerting anyone to their presence, a frown of concentration on her face. Marie finished and then looked up enquiringly, just in time for Sydney to motion silently for Marie to stay still. Marie flattened herself against the wall and held her breath. Sydney was further back, in the shadows - if the security guard came past he would see Marie immediately but Sydney was well hidden. As the guard's footsteps faded, Marie relaxed. They stayed there without moving for several minutes while they assessed the guard's progress back and forth, deciding how best to get past unnoticed. Sydney was creeping stealthily forwards. She moved so noiselessly that Marie didn't notice until she was at her side, her mouth next to Marie's ear.
"Move quickly and quietly, don't turn around," she whispered, slipping past Marie so that she was nearly in the corridor. Marie was ready to follow at Sydney's order. "Now." Sydney's hushed command set Marie's heart racing. This was her first mission and her immense fear combined with a desperation to succeed was almost enough emotion to knock her off her feet. They made it around the corner without major mis-hap and leaned against a wall to catch their breath. Sydney grinned at Marie, the blood coursing through her veins filling her with exhilaration and excited nervousness. She had forgotten this feeling. Before she knew the truth about SD-6, it was one of the things she loved most about her job but when she was working to bring down Sloane and the Alliance a part of her had hated it, and the other part had hated herself for loving it. Now she was free to enjoy the rush of adrenaline that surged through her and for a few moments she forgot that she hated this life, she forgot that as soon she was finished with Lloyd she would be resuming her life as Mrs Vaughn The Teacher, and Agent Bristow The CIA's Best Spy would be laid to rest for the final time.
Once they had recovered from their fast but silent sprint down the long corridor and around the corner, Sydney and Marie turned their attention to the door that led to the vault. The security guard by the door had his back to them. Sydney nodded at Marie, and Marie raised the tranquilliser gun in a shaking hand. She aimed and swallowed to soothe her dry throat. Hand still shaking violently from the fear and pressure she was under, she fired. Her hand was so shaky that she very nearly missed, but she had been trained well and the guard went down, never knowing who or what had hit him. Sydney ran up to him and grabbed the key card out of his pocket. She pushed it into the slot next to the door and then held the door open for Marie before removing the card. Marie was still recovering from her experience with the tranquilliser gun and only stared wide-eyed at her friend in response to Sydney's whispered "Well done." They hurried along the hallway and when they came to another door, Sydney set up her phone to get the code they would need to enter. Years of practice meant that Sydney did this with great ease but instinct meant that she glanced over her shoulder every few seconds, even though Marie was keeping watch a few metres away. Eventually, Sydney had all five numbers and called Marie back to her.
"Syd, hurry up. They've got the surveillance back." Vaughn's voice came to her over the comm link and she could not help the sharp intake of breath when she heard what he said. Sydney yanked the door open and pulled Marie through with her. They ran to the door of the vault and began to set up the explosives they were going to use to blow open the door. They worked quickly and efficiently and were soon ready. They stepped back and Sydney pushed the detonator. She flinched as the door was blown apart and Marie instinctively brought her arms up over her head.
"Okay, we're in," Sydney informed Vaughn.
"Right. Shutting down the lock system in three. . . two. . . one. You guys have two minutes to find the disk and get out of there." The CIA had found out that everything in the museum vault was locked away, but that all the locks were operated by the same system. A system that could be temporarily shut down by the CIA. However, exactly two minutes after it was shut down the vault room would be filled with a poisonous gas - a gas that would kill the two women in seconds.
Ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. . . Sydney counted in her head without even thinking about it.
Sydney and Marie began to pull open the white drawers that occupied the entire vault. They worked swiftly but methodically, yanking open drawers, not bothering to close them when they saw the contents.
Fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty. One minute up.
Sydney wrenched open a drawer and rifled through the contents. "Why do I feel like I'm breaking into someone's house and going through their private stuff?" she thought to herself, with a slight smile.
Eighty-nine, ninety, ninety-one, ninety-two. . .
"Got it!" Marie turned around, disk in hand, to grin triumphantly at Sydney.
"Great. Lets get out," Sydney said, already running out of the vault. Marie followed, stuffing the disk into her bag as she ran. They did not stop until they were a safe distance from the vault. When they allowed themselves time to recuperate, Sydney glanced at Marie and noticed the way her eyes sparkled. Her pride and happiness was obvious in her face and Sydney smiled at her. Marie had evidently forgotten about her fight with Mark. That was what the adrenaline rush would do to you, Sydney thought.
* * *
A few days later, Sydney and Marie were at their desks chatting and exchanging news of their weekends. Marie had called Mark as soon as they had returned from Luxembourg and they had spent the weekend together, both profusely apologetic for their first major argument. Sydney had spent the weekend relaxing with Vaughn and helping Francie out at the restaurant. Moments later they were called to a meeting. Jack Bristow had spent the entire weekend analysing the disk and had made great progress with the case.
"Well done Agent Bristow, Agent Henley," he said in his usual gruff manner. "The disk you brought back is, in fact, disk one. It contains information on Lloyd, his associates, his plans. However, this information is only partial. I'm assuming that this is why there are three other disks. Each one contains some of the information, ensuring that none of Lloyd's associates could do him any harm. Very clever really. The disk also contains part of a code. We'll need the other three disks to complete the code, of course, and we have no idea what it's for but this is a good start."