Café Noir
Disclaimer:
I do not own Alias; ABC, Bad Robot Productions and JJ Abrams do, and I give
full acknowledgement of that (good work guys). I do not own and am not affiliated
in any way, with the brands mentioned in this piece (such as Ford, BWM or Colt),
more than likely I've used them because they're known, or because they're very
nice bits of kit that I hope to have one day. Finally, I'm a student, don't
sue me, I've got nothing worth taking.
Authors note:
Well, 7 chapters down, and another 3 ready to be put up.
At the moment, I'm a little uncertain about some parts of this chapter, so I'm uploading it to get some feedback on where and how you think it could be improved, as at the moment there's a high chance I'll rewrite this section as and when I get the chance, but if I do, I doubt the chance will significantly affect the rest of the story anyway.
Until tommorow - Spyder
Time frame:
None - Just generally set after Sydney becomes a double agent.
To make the 11am rendezvous at the Café Noir, Vaughn had worked out that they'd have to leave the safe house at 6:30am the next morning to get there on time, presuming that they did not have to deal with any tails, and that things went smoothly, which he assured her it would.
And so, after what seemed like hours going over every little bit of information they could get their hands on, the trio of CIA agents were rather confident that they had everything planned out correctly. As Sydney looked down at the table in front of her, she picked up a sheet of paper with 'Extraction Methods' on, which stated as much information as you could cram onto an A4 bit of paper; it detailed routes and methods of extraction, from simply walking out, to talking the London Underground to Heathrow and getting on the first plane out of there.
If this amount of paperwork went into every mission, she mused, then Vaughn and Weiss must work their asses off to get this much information together, planned and workable.
Looking at her watch, she thought it was time for everyone to call it a day. It was 11:47pm and the rendezvous was the next day.
As she got up, Vaughn, the only other person in the room smiled a weary smile at her, and she responded in kind, before yawning. "I'm going to bed" she said, heading for the door.
"G'night Syd" Vaughn said, without lifting his head from the bit of paper he was scribbling notes on.
She looked puzzled. "Aren't you coming?" she asked, a moment too late, realising what she'd just said, "I mean aren't you going to sleep too? We've got a long day ahead of us, and I'm going to need you awake". She was rushing the words, trying hard to cover up her mistake, but it didn't work; Vaughn was just looking at her with the biggest grin on earth moulded to his face.
Wanting to laugh at her own mistake, and cringe at the look on his face, she let out a chuckle before he suddenly returned to the real world. "Uh, yeah, I 'spose, I'll… err… be up in a few minutes, k?"
Laughing again, she just nodded a yes, and then left, walking past the lounge room to an already snoring Eric Weiss. Sticking her head in, she smirked at Eric's position on the sofa - his feet were up on the armrest, his head was in-between two cushions, and he looked as if the next move he made would make him fall off.
Smirking, she closed the door as quietly as possible before heading upstairs to her own room, where she just fell on the bed, and was asleep within seconds.
Café Noir is, to say the least, a very exclusive place to drink. Located in the centre of Oxford Street, in London, it is one of the best places to be seen, and meet some very high class people.
And as such, it has a very high security profile, with both the London Metropolitan Police, and Scotland Yard involved in its protection, including such measures as CCTV with Facial Recognition and 2 Armed Response Teams who patrol up and down Oxford Street, day and night.
Usually this level of security would be something Sydney would have to deal with, taking out the CCTV cameras, before neutralising the Armed Response Teams, however this time, she was almost glad that the cameras were there, and that there were four, fully armed, combat ready police officers who could arrive inside 2 minutes if anything went wrong.
She was already late, and she knew Dixon would not be happy because of it, but that was a fact of life, living in LA taught her that in a busy area, always give yourself a little extra time to get there, but it was now 11:23am, and she still had a way to go, but she wasn't alone.
Sitting in the passenger seat, Sydney looked over at Vaughn, who was driving, concentrating hard on the traffic in front of him, with Weiss in the back, playing around with her earpiece just to make sure it worked properly before handing it to her.
Eventually, Vaughn pulled up, and after wishing her good luck, Sydney stepped out of the car, dressed down as a tourist, as agreed, and walked towards the café where she would meet the rest of her team.
Turning onto Oxford Street, she noticed that the street seemed relatively empty, especially around the café, where she immediately noticed Dixon sitting at an outside table, wearing an almost neon red shirt, which strangely enough made him seem to blend in more.
She thought about yelling to him to get his attention, but then remembered what she was there for, and getting undue attention was the fastest way of getting killed in this line of work.
Sydney was about thirty meters away from the restaurant she noticed something wasn't right.
In front of her, about fifteen meters from the group, she noticed a man walking rather more determinedly that everyone else, directly towards the group. Normally she would have ignored this; however, the man was wearing a black trenchcoat, which just didn't seem right to her, given the current conditions.
Ignoring the signs was the worst thing she'd ever done.
She noticed Dixon get up from the table, and then immediately collapse, which was followed by a scream from another patron as Tong, the other group leader.
Eyes wide, she began to pick up the pace towards the café, when a BT Transit van pulled out of the lane next to her at speed, only to see it slam on its brakes as it got to the café.
All the meantime, she subconsciously watched the man in the trenchcoat, as he pulled out a pistol, shooting the other members of the SD-6 team, moments before the side door in the BT van slid open, and three masked, heavily armed men ran out towards the group, as did about three of the patrons, all, it seemed, were armed, yelling things to each other and to the other patrons who were at this time screaming in hysterics.
As the two armed men, aided by one of their plainclothes friends, grabbed three of the SD-6 agents and hurriedly threw them to the van, the other two plainclothes helpers' dragged Dixon and Tong towards the van, who were aided by their armed comrades as they were put into the van, which sped off as fast as it arrived.
Almost as quickly as the van left, a with a black land-rover rolled into its place, with doors open, the driver yelling to the plainclothes helpers and the trenchcoat man, who got in without a seconds hesitation, speeding off after the Van.
The entire ambush, she calculated, took under 16 seconds, from first hit to the Land-Rover getting away, and although that time, Sydney stood in place, in complete shock, mouth agape at what just happened.
Sirens wailed in the distance, and she thought it was time to leave, turning, and walking as fast as she could without being noticed, away from the scene where her friends had been abducted less than a minute ago. Determined to get out alive, Sydney didn't realise until she got to the car that she was crying, thick and fast.
When Vaughn heard the screams, he immediately assumed the worst and started the engine ready to leave if anyone wearing any sort of uniform came round the corner, and for thirty seconds, none did, until Sydney walked round the corner, at which point he was relieved that she was alive, but he knew that until they were out of London and possibly the UK, that she wouldn't be truly safe.
Without a seconds hesitation, Weiss opened his door, and almost threw Sydney in the car, until he realised she was perfectly capable of doing it herself, despite the look of abhoration on her face.
Vaughn didn't wait for Eric to close his door before gunning the engine - neither of them wanted to stick around and see what would happen next.
However, in their haste, they didn't notice the Biker follow them out of the city, and half the way up the M1, before he fell back, and they were tailed by an inconspicuous looking Audi, all the way back to the safe house, that had been broken into earlier.