Chapter 31 Unexpected Turn

"Hello, Ms. Bristow, would you mind shooting that man in the leg, he had the audacity to give me dirty look." Will said doing a fairly good imitation of Sark. "How old is that guy anyway, 16?" It was early morning and Will and Sydney were chatting at their favorite coffee shop.

"I'm 27, Mr. Tippin." Sark said from behind him.

Will's eyes flashed a frantic message to Sydney to confirm that his ears weren't deceiving him. When she gave him a slight nod he closed his eyes as if in pain.

Sydney jumped in to the rescue. "What are you doing here Sark?" She barked out taking the offensive. Ever since her vivid daydream about Sark she felt confused around him. In this case her confusion formed into anger.

"What no good morning? How nice that it's stopped raining." His unusually cheery facade slightly dimmed under her glare. He turned to Will who had his face buried in his large mocha filled, bowl sized cup. "Is this how she usually is in the morning or am I special?" Sark asked sitting down without being invited.

Will choked on his coffee and started coughing like a maniac. Sark, grabbing a glass of water from a waitress's tray as she walked by, offered the swiped goods to Will at the same time that Sydney handed Will a napkin.

"I'm afraid that I have a talent for discomposing you Mr. Tippin." Sark said not knowing what else to say. He seemed uncomfortable, a little nervous even, all things that were the antithesis of the Sark that Sydney knew.

"Yes, you do, so leave!" Sydney said glaring at Sark. She saw the confusion flash in his eyes before it was quickly hidden. She didn't like this side of Sark. Her main defense against him was his lack of human emotions, now that he was showing signs of them she was again off balance.

"I was told that an offer of friendship would be accepted. My mistake." Sark replied coldly. He retreated from the table and went to the counter to order.

"Am I the only one that feels like we've just entered the twilight zone?" Will asked between coughs. "Oh. OH. OOOOH!" He said as enlightenment dawned on Sark's unusual behavior. He remembered a conversation he had with Yo last night about Sark and his promise to her to try to be nice to Sark. It was hard to say no to that women. The idea was insane, it was like a rabbit trying to be friends with a lion. Not that he was a rabbit, Will thought to himself not realizing that he was speaking his though aloud.

"You made a promise to be friends with Sark?" Sydney let out a little snort. "Over my dead body!" She said vehemently.

"I'd rather be his friend then his enemy." Will said leaning back into his chair. He observed Sark flirting with an elderly woman at the counter making her laugh and flirt back. "Maybe Yo is right, maybe he isn't as bad as we thought."

The coffee that Sydney had just sipped spewed from her lips. She quickly cleaned up the mess hoping that Sark hadn't seen it. But he had and he sent an amused look her way before leaving the café.

"What did you mean by Sark isn't as bad as we thought? It wasn't that long ago that he'd had you tortured." She hissed at him.

"Well yeah I guess so. But he did tell the guy who did torture me that he didn't think that I knew anything." Will said quietly. He hated to think about the time he had been kidnapped by Sark. He had almost convinced himself that it had never happened, that was until now.

"I'm so sorry Will, I shouldn't have brought it up." Sydney said guiltily. The ringing of her cell saved her from having to elaborate her apology.

Three hours later.

"We have a tail." Sark said into the transmitter in his ear as he checked out his rear view mirror.

"Should I take them out?" Asked Dixon. Dixon had been following Sark and Sydney on their way to the appointment with Nicholas Boyer, the right hand man of Charles Francois, the son of a founding member of the Seekers. Boyer had called rescheduling the meeting for two days earlier then the original scheduled time and thereby only giving them an hour notice.

They were on the highway, about 10 minutes away from Boyer's office building when Sark noticed their tail.

"No, run the license plate and find out who it is." Sark ordered. "Marshall, what's your status?"

"Testing one, two, I love to say that. Uh, for a lawyer, Mr. Boyer must be insanely paranoid or he has something to hide because his office is as secure as SD-6. We're only able to tap into their security system for 5 seconds at a time. They're alternating between 10 different systems in a random order. It's like playing that gofer game where you're suppose to hit the gofer when it pops up."

"Marshall, are you telling me that we don't have audio or visual?" Sark interrupted.

"That would be an affirmative, I mean it's affirmative that we do not have audio or visual." Marshall replied.

"And when are we going to have it?" Sark asked the temperature of his voice dropping to sub zero. His displeasure was evident.

"We wont, at least not today. It will take months to hack into their system." Marshall's voice was unnaturally quiet and serious.

"Quinn?" Sark asked. Michael Quinn was the head of SD-1's security systems and one of Sark's most trusted agents.

"Boyer is using a similar system to what SD-1 is using. Marshall is right Sir, it will take months to hack into their system and there is a 93.6% chance that we'll be detected before we find a way in." Quinn said reaffirming Marshall's verdict. "I'm surprised that he was able to get in at all. One other thing Sir, once you and Agent Bristow are inside the building, we won't be able to contact you without them knowing about it. If I had prior notice I would have developed a device that would piggy back off of another signal so that they couldn't trace it to you."

"Is there any good news?" Sark asked rhetorically. "Once Sydney and I are inside the building we will be on radio silence unless Marshall or Quinn can find a way into their security system."

"The van that's tailing you is part of Boyer's security detail." Dixon voice interrupted the tense silence that had followed Sark's comment.

Sydney who had been silent during this entire time spoke up after turning off the communicator in her ear. "Sark, do you think that Boyer has plans to." She was interrupted as the car swerved, narrowly missing the car that had screeched to a halt in front of them. Two motorcycles appeared on both sides of the car and bullets rang out and bounced off the bulletproof glass. A bullet hit the car's tire causing the car to spin out onto the shoulder of the highway. It turned over twice before it came to a stop.

Once the car stopped Sark looked over at Sydney who was unconscious. He released himself from his seatbelt as quickly as he could and before he could reach Sydney, a figure opened her side of the door and pulled her out of the car. Then his door opened and a figure pulled him out as well. He started to resist but the voice stopped him.

"You'll be safe in a few more minute Mr. King." Said the man helping Sark to a nearby van.

Sark realized that they were still in the middle of a gunfight. "Who are you?" He asked even though he had already knew that the man was Brian Casey, the head of security for Boyer and Associates. The man was ex CIA Special Forces, who had left at the peak of his career and virtually disappeared. It wasn't until they did a in dept check on Boyer that Casey came into the scene.

"Explanations must wait, I need to get you and Mrs. Radcliff to safety." Casey said before speaking into the communicator in his ear. "Franklin, we're ready for the lift." A few seconds later the sound of a helicopter drowned out the gunfire. "Give me cover and then get out of here." Ordered Casey. Sark picked up the still unconscious Sydney and made his way toward the helicopter as Casey followed covering him.

Once they were in the helicopter, it took off. "What about your men?" Sark asked getting into his alias of Mr. Aiden King, the lawyer of Sarah Radcliff, potential heir to Charles Francois's estate. "What is going on? Are you taking us to the hospital? Sarah needs a doctor."

"My men will take care of the attackers who are after Ms. Radcliff. She is safe for now." Casey explained.

Sark had layed Sydney down in a way so that her head was in his lap. Sark examined the cut on her temple, it had stopped bleeding but the bruising around it looked very bad. He didn't like the fact that Sydney hadn't woken up yet. "I don't understand, why would anyone want to attack her?"

"Mr. Boyer will be able to answer all your questions once we get to the mansion." Casey deflected.