CHAPTER FIVE – BEING WATCHED

Sydney took a slow, deep breath, trying to force her head to clear.  Squeezing her eyes shut and popping them wide open, she surveyed her surroundings.

She was curled in the corner of a small, solid-cement holding cell.  The only light fell from several 3-foot by half-inch openings in the ceiling.  The walls were smooth, broken only by the heavy blue steel of the door across from where she sat – even the corners were rounded.

On the ceiling, dead center, Sydney noticed a small, halfway-imbedded, black-glass orb.  Camera.  Good to know she was being watched.  Nothing in the room could have been used as a weapon – there wasn't anything in the room…  I guess it's time to sit and wait.

Sydney sighed and pushed herself back so she was sitting upright, supported by the curve of the wall.  Pulling her legs up to her chest, she clasped her arms in front of her shins and rested her chin on her knees.

She tried to calm herself with breathing exercises, but now that her mind was awake, it was trying to catalogue all the new information it had recently received.

Francie, dead…  A.G. Doran, not dead...  Vaughn, married…  Will, not dead…  Dad…

Where was Jack?  Sydney was certain her father would want to know that she had been found.  Why hadn't Vaughn offered any information on him?  Surely, he was alright… he had to be.  Sydney didn't think her brain could comprehend it if both of the men she loved were taken away.

Dad's fine… Mom… Vaughn hadn't given any information on her either.  Although, she admitted, I didn't exactly give him much opportunity for lengthy narratives.  Except the one.

Jie… Jie Vaughn.  No, wait! –  Jie Vargas.  Sydney felt a little easier knowing that Vaughn's wife wasn't "Mrs. Vaughn."  After his confession of love (That didn't just stop – not even after two years…) Sydney had allowed herself a moment's belief that that title was still reserved for her. 

If your marriage license is under an alias, is the marriage still legal? she wondered, smirking involuntarily.  She'd have to ask Jack, sure he'd been curious about the subject at one point.  But, did it really matter?  There was only one important fact to Sydney.

Tonight Vaughn would be home with her… sleeping in their bed.

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Erik Vargas stood staring at the small black and white monitor of the room on the opposite side of the blue steel door.  The love of his life was huddled into a corner like a wounded animal.  This is my fault.  He was concentrating so closely that he didn't hear the shuffling feet stopping next to him.

"Who is she?"

Everyone in the organization had always addressed Vargas in English.  After weeks of speaking Chinese to his associates, only to have answers returned in his native language, he had given up.  Chinese was a very mellifluous language – extremely nuanced – where the slightest upper or lower pitch of a single syllable altered the entire meaning of the phrase.  It was nearly impossible to get it right without being a native-speaker.

Kin En Kai's visit was not unexpected.  He was always aware of what went on in his business.  He reminded Vaughn of Irina in his soft manner of probing those around him for important information.  Vargas, however, was prepared.  He turned to face his employer.

"She's the daughter of an important contact.  Escaped from a mental institution in Tai Pei – I have no idea how she managed to get here.  My contact put word out of her disappearance a couple weeks ago.  She turned up this evening in a hotel in town."

Vaughn had learned that the simplest thing to do when dealing with his father-in-law was to keep the lies as close to the truth as possible.  He returned his focus to the screen.

"She is completely delusional.  When I went to recover her from the hotel, I discovered that not only does she believe it to be 2003, but she thinks I am someone called 'Michael.'  When I tried to explain who I was, she became agitated.  Apparently this 'Michael' is someone she was involved with.  When she saw my wedding band, she went mad and ran off again.  I put out orders to have her found and brought here."

En Kai studied Vargas carefully through a sideways glance.  "This contact must be valuable."

Vargas nodded confirmation.  "Former American CIA.  He went freelance when his daughter got sick.  I would like to keep her here until I can inform him of her retrieval."

En Kai's silence on the subject was sufficient assent for Vargas.

The older man turned to leave.  "Will you and Jie be over for dinner tomorrow?"

Vargas jerked his head up, apparently startled by something.  "Of course."

"Until then."

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En Kai lifted the heavy black telephone receiver up to his ear and spoke softly.

"I'd like the tapes from the holding cell over the next few days stored and delivered to me once she is retrieved.   Yes…  And make sure he is being watched."

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