The next day, after an extremely thorough debriefing and planning session, Sydney found herself drawn to the cemetery where she had chosen to bury Danny. She hadn't visited his grave since she had started her relationship with Vaughn. At the time, all she wanted to do was leave the past behind. Since then she learned if choosing to ignore or forget her past wasn't the smartest answer. No matter what she did, it always seemed to rise up to bite her in the heart.
"Figures that since that's over, I'd find myself back here," she muttered to herself. She sat down on the bright green grass and curled her legs under her. It was an extremely beautiful day which made sense since Danny loved this city and the weather so much. Running her fingers over the small patch of daisies she had planted next to the headstone over a year ago, she thought about her fiancé.
Not so long ago, Danny had been the light in her eyes whenever she smiled. He was the reason she was able to get up each morning and do what needed to be done. She had loved him like no other man, with nothing held back, caution to the wind.
"And he paid the price," she thought to herself. A small tear ran down her face. He may have been dead for quite a while now, but she still missed him like crazy. No man had ever understood her so completely as Danny did. Vaughn never had the time to achieve that level of intimacy with her, and Will… he came close so often. But when he knew her so well, there was always something missing. They were never lovers. She never knew what it meant to love him utterly and completely.
Sydney smiled to herself. That had changed. Last time she saw him, they had become lovers. "But he didn't really know me then," she mumbled to herself and to Danny. "Too much time had passed."
She began to trace the letters carved into the stone. "You know who reminds me of you?" she asked the headstone.
"Me?" came a cocky British voice from behind her.
"Do you not have any morals?" she said without turning around. She continued to lightly finger the headstone. "I'm trying to have a private conversation here."
"You know I don't have morals, Agent Bristow," Sark said as he sat down next to her. "Now, will you explain to me why I remind you of your dead boyfriend?"
"I never said it was you," Sydney said, finally looking at Sark. Sighing, she continued, "Well, to start, you both have the somewhat aloof, I-know-more-than-you-do type of accent. Danny was always two steps ahead of me."
"Are you admitting that I get the best of you?" he said with a smile.
"Maybe," she said. "What are you doing here, Sark?"
"As much as it kills me, I felt the need to thank you for not revealing my position to your CIA comrades."
"Number one, you know I couldn't have told them you were there without revealing the fact that I needed to be saved. The first rule my father ever taught me was at no time are you allowed to show weakness. This goes for both your employers and your adversaries. My father's wise. I listen to him." Sark rolled his eyes. "Number two, I think my kindness towards you canceled out the debt I had towards you for saving me off the street. So, we're even. And you can get out of my life now."
Sydney stood up and brushed off her skirt.
Sark quickly grabbed her hand and spun her around. This quick motion caught her completely unawares. She lost her balance and found herself being engulfed in his arms. Sydney was quick to realize that to any passerby, it looked like he had just romantically dipped her. She smirked to herself at the idea.
"Now, Agent Bristow. If you really wanted me out of your life, you wouldn't be in my arms right now." He gave her a quick but passionate kiss, stood her up on her feet, and turned without saying a word.
Sydney was left staring at him as he disappeared into the horizon. Unconsciously, she rubbed her lips and wondered what was going on with her.
"You won't believe this, Danny. Sark's actually succeeded in making my pulse beat faster which was obviously his goal, the arrogant bastard," she muttered to the headstone, giving it a little pat. She turned and began to walk back to her car. "Not that he's never done that before," she rationalized silently. "But at least then, it was only because of how he looked, not what he did to me. And most times, it was just because he got on my bad side so easily."
Sydney would be the first one to admit that Sark was an extremely attractive man. And he knew it. In that sense, he was the same as her. He was willing to use his attractiveness and sex appeal to get what he wanted. It was a tremendously useful asset in the world of spies and aliases.
Turning to look at where he had been standing a minute earlier, she wondered, "But why is he using it on me? And why is it working so well?"
She opened the door to her car and was surprised to hear her beeper going off. "Work calls," she muttered.
Groaning, she shifted her car into drive and made a quick u-turn to take her back to the CIA facility. She couldn't imagine what new intel had surfaced in the two hours she had been away from the headquarters. In the back of her mind, she couldn't help but suspect it had something to do with Sark. He wouldn't just show up randomly at Danny's grave with the sole purpose of thanking her for keeping him safe.
"Ridiculous," she muttered as made a couple quick right turns and got onto the freeway. She knew that she was one of the best agents the government had on active duty, but that still didn't calm her when she was constantly being called to go on missions.
Her whole life was interwoven in with the CIA's operations, but she was really starting to believe that she was the only agent assigned to missions. She had never heard of other agents going on two to three missions a week to exotic locales for short periods of time.
Sydney exited off the freeway and took the last left turn before she approached her destination. She calmly checked the rearview mirror for any cars tailing her. Luckily, there didn't appear to be any suspicious behavior back there so she was able to pull right into the parking garage.
What surprised her most was not that Vaughn was standing next to her parking space, waiting for her arrival, but that he had brought Lauren along with him. She had told him that having Lauren around constantly made her nervous. Having to be on your best behavior all the time was not an easy task to complete. And that's what she felt she had to do when Vaughn brought his wife around.
"What's going on?" she asked immediately as she exited her car.
"One of my contacts has checked in with me. He confirmed that the men who were chasing you did find the little scene you left for them in Rio," Lauren supplied as the three of them began to make their way inside.
"The situation is a lot worse than we first thought, Sydney," Vaughn added.
Sydney glanced at him but quickly turned her attention back to Lauren. "Explain."
"The men who were chasing you were working for Taylor Cummings. Are you aware of him?"
"Supposedly, he's the man in charge of the new agency that the CIA is worrying about," Sydney said as they reached a briefing room that was already full of all the usual players. "But that's all I know."
Lauren took the vacant seat next to Dixon. "With your permission, Director Dixon…" Dixon nodded his approval and she continued. "The agency that Cummings is in charge of is called The Kindred. They're a group of very powerful men and women from all over the world. Each member has somehow lost a position of power they once held in one of the other top organizations that we've been working against. They have a handful of ex-KGB agents and one of the directors. Cummings even coerced defectors from the newly formed Covenant. However, the most interesting recruit is Svetlana Borgava, the head of K-Directorate before its collapse. She is one of the higher ups and therefore one of the few people who actually are in contact with Cummings personally."
"And the men chasing me were a part of this organization."
"Yes. It seems Cummings has heard of you and your reputation, Sydney," Dixon said. "He's realized that the one dimension his organization is still lacking is that of operatives from Central Intelligence."
"He wants me," Sydney said simply. "Well, that shouldn't pose a large problem. I won't go with him willingly, and I'm the best agent here at resisting interrogation and brainwashing. Why the sudden call to arms?"
"When you so cleverly alluded his men, Sydney, Cummings decided that he was going to have to put your case on the backburner. He realized that you were probably going to be his toughest acquisition," Lauren stated. "So he's moved on to his next agenda."
"Which is?"
"The acquisition of free agents." Lauren slid a folder across the table to Sydney. "Here's a list of the potential agents we think Cummings is going to try to contact. We want you to pinpoint the one you think would be most dangerous if allied with the Kindred."
Sydney picked up the folder and began leafing through it. "I assume that when I pick one of these people, you'll be sending me on a mission to keep Cummings away from them."
Dixon smiled. "You're correct. After you've gone through all the files and chosen which one deserves the greatest priority, I'd appreciate if you could prioritize the rest of the names. I want an agent on every single one of these people, but I want to save the better agents for more complex missions."
Sydney nodded her understanding and began to flip through the file.
"Take your time, Sydney," Lauren said. "We want you to be sure that you've selected the correct person. This operation could deliver a severe blow to the Kindred's operation if done right."
Sydney closed the folder. "No need. I'm done." She threw the picture and profile of the person she selected onto the table.
"Sark?" Vaughn was completely floored. "Out of all of those free agents, you chose him?"
"Don't sound so surprised," Sydney said. "Dixon. Lauren. Sark should be the top priority of this organization. We've all seen him in action. He's just as good as I am, if not better at times. That makes him an extremely valuable asset. If Cummings wanted me as a member of his organization, it's only natural that upon realizing he couldn't get me he would seek out someone just as good.
"A very strong point," Dixon agreed.
"And I think that even if Cummings persuades Sark to join him, I can persuade Sark not to. Either physically or verbally."
"You think you have some sort of power over Sark?" Vaughn asked.
"I know I have power over him. But we're just going to have to see how much good that will do us." Sydney turned back to Dixon. "I recommend you find the current location of Sark and send me there to monitor his comings and goings. When Cummings' man goes in to make a deal, I'll intercept. Sark won't try to attack me or capture me. He'll be too surprised to see me. The plan is as near to fool proof as we can get."
"Good," Dixon said standing up. "Lauren, get us Sark's location within the hour. Sydney, you're going to be on the first commercial flight to that destination. Good luck."
Sydney stayed in her seat as she watched everyone leave the room. When no one was within ear or eyeshot, she sighed deeply. Deep down inside, she knew the evaluation she made was the right one, but she couldn't help but wonder if maybe she had let her emotions play a part in the decision making process. And if that was the case, she was going to have a very interesting mission.
