The warehouse in Taipei where her mother had shot her looked exactly the same as Sydney had left it. There was chaos everywhere from the search for survivors of the flood she had created herself. It took her almost thirty minutes to locate where the main room was where the Mueller device had exploded. Kendall told her that her mother was storing whatever newly acquired artifact she had in this very room under the guise of it being abandoned.

"Not very smart if you ask me," Sydney muttered. The warehouse had no guards or surveillance on it. She couldn't believe that her mother would allow such an important object to be kept under such loose supervision. She continued to mutter to herself as she began to dig through the broken pieces of furniture, crates, and other heavy unidentified objects. "Sometime this job is so not fun."

Kendall had given her instructions that there was a hidden compartment underneath where she had first seen the Mueller device. Her mission was to find that location and dig to find the compartment. That was where Derevko was hiding the Rambaldi artifact.

"Oh that's gross," Sydney said as she accidentally flung mud and god knows what else across herself.

"Agent Bristow, I would stop digging if I were you," came an unfamiliar British voice from behind Sydney.

She turned to see a man she had never set eyes on before. He happened to be pointing a gun in her direction from a platform about a story up from her position. She did a quick assessment of him. He was young but stood with a sense of authority. That means that whatever he does for a living he has been doing it for a long enough time to be comfortable. He was on the attractive side if only he would lose the slight comb over he was sporting. Sydney definitely saw an adversary in him, but she wasn't sure who exactly he was working for.

"Not the British bastard I was hoping for, but hey, I'm game," she said. "You seem to know me, but I have no idea who you are. Care to introduce yourself?"

"Not right now. For now, I need you to get off that pile of crap and go introduce yourself to my two friends over there." The man used his gun to motion in the general direction of two thugs standing to the left of the pile of rubble Sydney was standing on.

"Now, if you know enough about me to know my name, I think you would realize that I'm not just going to walk over there without a struggle."

"I know that, Agent Bristow," the man said sounding exasperated.

"Good," thought Sydney. "I'm having an effect on him."

"They're expendable," the man said nonchalantly. "And easily replaceable."

Sydney was about to spit out a comeback when she realized that he was telling the truth. These men were extremely easy to replace. The two thugs who were beginning to make their way up the pile of debris and to her side weren't the only two present in the room now. There was a slow but steady stream of men she could only presume worked for this mystery man.

"I think you're underestimating how good I am at what I do," Sydney said trying to sound as confident as possible. She knew that it probably didn't come off as well as she hoped.

"We'll see about that, Miss Bristow." The man relaxed the gun.

"Here we go," Sydney mumbled to herself as the two original thugs came within arm's length.

She gave the first one a strong kick in the gut, sending him rolling down the debris pile, and punched the second one straight in the jaw. She was surprised to see that it didn't really faze him. Quickly, she tried to kick him in the shin.

Her blow didn't land, and she felt herself being lifted off the ground by her throat. Before she could be flung across the room, she kicked her attacker in the chest. His grip on her throat relaxed a little, and she was able to wiggle free.

"That better not bruise," she screamed as she began to repeatedly punch him in the face.

Sydney didn't have a moment to relax as shots began being fired in her general direction. She could only assume that they were tranquilizers. The men she had just finished fighting hadn't been trying to kill her. Whoever this mystery man was, he wanted her alive. Which was fine by her.

"Can't we work something out here?" she yelled as she ran for cover. "Something that doesn't involve shooting at me?" Stopping in this hiding place only long enough to take a breath, she mumbled to herself, "People shoot at me way too often."

She felt the butt of a gun being pressed into her side. Obviously, her hiding place hadn't been as good as she thought it was. She swiftly twisted her body and rammed the gun into her assailant's face. The woman crumbled to the floor. Sydney picked up the gun and began to cautiously walk back into the open area of the main warehouse.

About twenty wary steps out, gunshots began to go off all around her. Sighing, she dived into the muck she had previously been knee deep in. She hoped that it would cover her enough so that she was able to fire some shots back. Silently she cursed Kendall for refusing to let Vaughn come along to provide assistance.

"Are you ready to give up now, Agent Bristow?" the mystery man called from his position overhead.

Sydney answered by shooting a few times in the direction of his voice. She stood up and ran over to the wall, thinking of ways she could scale up it to the platform overhead. She knew her limits, and she definitely couldn't keep successfully picking off this man's henchmen. He needed to be taken out and quick.

She found the wall was slightly pitted and provided her with rather nice hand and foot holds. Sighing, she shoved the gun into the waistline of her pants and began to climb. She was surprised to feel the gunshots fade off. "Looks like I'm getting too close to their boss for them to risk shooting," she mumbled.

"You could say that," came a voice from right above her.

A hand reached down and yanked her the last few feet up the wall. Sydney found herself flung into a corner with not too much care. She heard a slight snap in her wrist and knew immediately that it was broken.

"Um. Ow?!?!?" she said. She tried to stand up but was quickly grabbed by two men.

"Are you ready to cooperate?" the mystery man asked.

"No," she answered honestly. "But could you at least tell me your name? That way I know who the hell I'm trying to kill."

"She warned me that I'd like you," the man replied.

"She? Who the hell are you talking about?" Sydney yelled back.

"My name is Simon Walker, and I'll not be telling you more than that today." Simon leaned in close to Sydney's face. "I especially won't be telling you who I'm working for. That is if I'm working for anyone at all."

"Okay," Sydney said. She used the two men as leverage and kicked off the wall. The force of her motion made them lose their grip on her, and she went flying at Simon. She landed with a thud on top of him and quickly yanked him to his feet and pointed the gun she had previously stolen at his head. "Now aren't we in a predicament?"

"Not really," Simon said. "You have a broken wrist so you can only point that gun at me with the one hand. And my men seem to be realizing that you're all alone out here. CIA didn't give you back-up? Too bad. You would have needed it right about now." He shrugged the jacket off of his shoulders and threw it down on the floor.

Sydney was startled to see the men she had assumed would come to Simon's aid begin to file out of the room.

"You see, honey, they were the pre-game. I'm the main event." Simon used her surprise to his advantage and knocked the gun out of her hand. He quickly bent down and kicked her legs out from under her. Sighing, he pushed her hands up over her head before she could fight back. "I have to admit, Agent Bristow, I expected a much better fight out of you." He slammed his right fist into the side of her head, knocking her unconscious.

Simon couldn't help but taunt her in her lifeless state. "Mommy's going to be mad."