This story is really weird. It's definitely alternate universe and maybe confusing at times, but just bear with me and it will all be explained. Also keep in mind that the first two chapters are like prologues to set the scene.
June 2001
Sydney opened her eyes and took a moment to
remember where she was. A plane......she was on a plane. As she sat up to
stretch her back the pilot came over the speakers announcing that they would be
landing in Los Angeles in about ten minutes. She smiled to herself and she moved
her blanket aside and re-fastened her seat belt. After about a million flights
she could fall asleep and then instinctively wake up right before the landing
was announced, it was almost like clockwork.
Once she passed through security and customs, she hurried out
to the front and waved down a taxi. Sydney slid into the back and gave the
driver directions to Danny's apartment. She was both eager and nervous about
seeing him. Just two days before her latest mission she had revealed to him that
her job was not actually as a translator for the State Department but as a black
ops freelancer for the CIA. He was, well, less than thrilled with the news. She
didn't blame him of course, the entire reason she told him in the first place
was because she couldn't stand lying to him. She remembered him kissing her
stomach as he brought up the subject of having a baby. It hit her then that she
had to tell him. This was the man she was going to marry, spend the rest of her
life with, maybe have children with, he had the right to know.
As the cab pulled up in front of Danny's apartment she paid
the driver, gathered up her suit case and bag from the airport gift shop, and
stepped out. She climbed the steps up to his floor and unlocked the door.
"Sweetie, I'm home-" she began but stopped and
looked around in shock. The room looked like a tornado had been through it and
there were five guys in gloves and swat suits looking just as surprised to see
her as she was to see them.
"Who are you people? What are you doing here?" she demanded.
They glanced at each other hesitantly before one spoke for
the group. "They were supposed to pick you up at the airport," he
said.
She stood staring at them for a few moments. They stood
silently their eyes seeming to dart toward the bathroom door and back again.
Sydney dropped her bags and rushed forward.
"Miss Bristow-" one of them called after her. She
ignored it, flinging open the bathroom door. Her breath caught in her
throat at what she saw. She made a silent gasping noise and covered her mouth
with her hands feeling tears springing to her eyes. There was blood everywhere.
The shower curtain had torn off the hooks and was laying across the lifeless
figure. Danny her sweet British doctor fiancé was lying inside his own bathtub
covered in blood. She pressed her hand hard against her head trying to find a clear
thought somewhere. A scream swelled up in her lungs but refused go any higher
than her throat.
Footsteps entered the room behind her. She turned and found
herself looking into the face of her boss Arvin Sloane. He glanced away from her
momentarily, sighed, and then looked back at her face.
"Sydney-" he began.
She shook her head and turned toward the sink to rest her
weight against it.
"Sydney, lets go to another room," Sloane said,
cautiously taking her elbow to lead her out.
She turned away from him and dropped to her knees in front of
the bathtub. She reached down to feel the pulse on Danny's neck. None came.
"Sydney, there's nothing you can do," Sloane said
gently. Sydney felt tears spilling down her cheeks. Sloane helped her to her
feet and lead her out of the bathroom. She followed as he lead her pass the team
in the living room and into the bedroom. The bedroom her and Danny had shared so
many times over the past two years.
"Now-" Sloane started.
"What happened?" she forced the words from her
mouth.
Sloane sighed again and took a take recorder out of his
jacket pocket. He pushed the play button and Danny's voice filled the room. He
was talking about kids and then......oh god........he talked about her being a
spy.
Sloane stopped the tape recorder and put it back in his
pocket. "We intercepted a communiqué about three hours ago. On it where
instructions to assassinate Mr. Hecht," he explained.
"From where?" Sydney asked shakily.
"The source is still unknown. However, there's no doubt
that the order came as a result of the message you just heard," he
said, "One of the United States' enemies decided to get personal retribution
against you-"
"Why didn't you stop them?" she cut him off.
"By the time we received the communiqué the order had
already been carried out. We didn't have time to organize counter
measures-" he began.
"Bullshit!" Sydney yelled rage evident in her
voice, "We do stuff like that all the time!"
"Sydney-"
"You sold him out!" she shouted, "You let the
man I love die! You let him be killed!"
"Sydney, I understand your grief-" Sloane started.
That was too much for Sydney. She grabbed a letter opener off
Danny's desk and lunged at him with it. He grabbed her arms and held her away
from his body. She broke free and stabbed at him with the letter opener. He
grabbed her hand and slapped her hard against the face.
The slap sent her reeling backward. She dropped the letter
opener as the landed on her knees on the floor. Sloane picked the letter opener
up and slipped it into his pocket along with the tape recorder. He squatted down
in front of Sydney.
"I'm sorry about that......are you okay?" He asked
and reached toward her. She pulled her face away from his hand and started at
him with a cold empty gaze.
With another sigh he rose to his feet, and headed toward the
door "I understand that you are in pain, Sydney, so I am willing to forget
this little incident. But I will not tolerate such disrespect again. Neither I
nor The Agency is the reason your fiancé is dead. You knew that you were not
supposed to disclose information about what you do for The Agency. You
endangered your life, and his life, and the lives of hundreds of federal agents.
This happened because you broke the rules. You have no one to blame except
yourself. Now, I suggest you stay in here until the clean up crew has
finished."
With those last words Sloane turned and left the room,
shutting the door firmly behind him. Sydney stared blankly at the door for a few
moments. She slowly settled herself up against the edge of the bed, pulled her
legs up against her chest, and clutched her arms tightly against her her knees.
Her body began to shake violently as the scream that had been welling up in the
bathroom finally burst forth in a wail of complete agony.
Three Months Later
Sydney screamed silently as she struggled against the arm holding her head underwater. The owner of the arm yanked her up by her hair, as a second man helped throw her to the ground. She coughed and gasped against the floor. They yanked her up, again by her hair, and threw her into a metal chair and handcuffed her to the back. The door in front of her opened and a man in a dark suit walked in. He had the two guards hold her down as he inserted a syringe of brown liquid into her arm. She struggled violently until the drug kicked in and she dropped off into sleep.
As she came out of the drug the man in the
dark suit still stood in front of her.
"Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. I don't know what you put in
that stuff. Wow. Wooo," She joked.
"I'd rather not make this too painful," He said,
his voice a raspy whisper.
"Me, too. Thanks. Glad we're on the same page. It's
good," she said sarcastically. He leaned closer too her face.
"Who are you working for? I'll not ask you again,"
he said.
"Okay. Get a pen," she said. He produced a
ballpoint pen and a pad of paper from his coat, "Write this down.
E-M-E-T-I-B. You got that?"
"Yes," he
answered.
"Okay. Now reverse it," she said, trying to keep
the fiendish amusement out of her voice. She watched as he did so. The annoyance
evident on his face once he got it.
She chuckled and said "I've got bad news for you, man.
I'm your worst enemy. I've got nothing to lose."
The dark suit guy motioned to one of the guards who brought
him a black kit. He opened it and pushed it closer to her.
"That's not exactly true. You have teeth."
The creepy Asian man's ominous words were the
last she heard of her dream before her eyes snapped open. The flight attendant
who had awoken her pulled back and nervously explained, "Ma'am we're
landing soon."
Sydney watched as the flight attendant quickly hurried away.
She smirked. Her appearance must have been pretty shocking. Bright red hair and
a swollen jaw. Oh well.......like she gave a shit.
Sydney got off the plane and boarded a bus headed for the
downtown area of Los Angeles. She got off at the stop two miles away from the
CIA office. She walked clutching her prize from Taipei wrapped in a white piece
of cloth. She crossed the Central Intelligence Agency seal in the front lobby
with the intention of depositing the device on Sloane's desk, hopefully refraining
from telling him to stick it where the sun doesn't shine, and then getting the
hell out of there.
However things didn't quite work as planned.......
