Sydney could practically kiss Marshall when she found the wig in the box that he had picked out for her. It was her absolute favorite red wig. She hadn't seen it since the mission she had gone on to get her father released from prison. That was right when she had returned to her normal life and realized two years were conveniently missing. It seemed so long ago.
She set the wig aside gently and picked up the stack of papers she had first extracted from the box. Rifling through them quickly, she realized that Sark was in the last place she would have guessed. If it were up to her, she would have placed him still in London, doing the work that needed to be done through the telephone. Instead it appeared he had settled into a flat above a rather seedy bar in Havana.
The rest of the papers detailed all the information Marshall could acquire on Sark's current objective. It appeared like there was a critical piece to taking down the Covenant right there in Cuba. There was a corporation headed by one of the major players in the Covenant which owned a casino in the swarming mass of downtown Havana. There was going to be a crucial exchange of information that very night.
"No time's better than the present," she decided. It was reassuring that all she had to do was steal a computer disk. That was turning out to be her specialty. "Practice makes perfect," she said with a laugh as she stood up to start searching her closet for acceptable gambling clothing and begin the packing process.
She couldn't help but worry in the back of her head that Sark wouldn't go for her proposal. Everything she was concocting depended on the one man she felt she couldn't really trust completely. At least professionally.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
"And how do you find Havana today?" the cabbie asked Sydney as she slid into the backseat.
"Really, really icky," she said, playing up the dumb young girl angle. She didn't want anyone to connect her with the alias she was planning on using later that night. Therefore, she was transformed into the dumb American.
"So sorry," the driver said turning his attention back to driving. "Where we off to?"
"The Llanero Casino." Sydney purposefully stumbled over the words. "My friends say it's the place to be in Havana."
When the cabbie didn't respond, Sydney looked down at the magazine she had bought in the airport. It was some Spanish entertainment publication. Nothing she was too interested in. But the cabbie wouldn't know that. She had discreetly slid the basic outline of Sark's operation in between each of the pages.
"Time to study," she thought to herself. Looking around, she figured she had plenty of time since the streets appeared to be grid locked. And she had always thought no one had a car in Cuba anymore.
The mission Sark had given to himself seemed like an easy one. He would just have to conveniently bump into the table when the exchange was being made. A swift switch of the disk with a blank one, and the mission was complete.
However, Sydney knew something that he didn't. The Covenant tended to keep themselves pretty well guarded when it came to these disk exchanges. And unless Sark lucked out and the majority of the guards weren't into women, he didn't have the necessary assets to get the job done. At least her secret weapon to distracting the guards had always been flirting. He was as exceptional in that regard as she was, but unless he could turn himself into a woman, she really didn't think it would be effective.
Sydney decided this probably hadn't occurred to him so he would be waiting in the bar area for the proper time to make his move. Which is why she decided she had to get the disk before the exchange came close to happening.
The hard part was getting the disk without the Covenant or Sark discovering her presence. If either one saw her, she was in a lot more trouble than she had ever bargained for. And she wasn't really looking forward to having a confrontation with Sark. Not when she was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on with regards to her heart.
"We're here, lady," the cabbie said.
She smiled at him and fumbled through her purse, pretending like she didn't really understand the value of currency. Eventually, she handed him a bill she knew was way to large and, in an awful attempt at Spanish, told him to keep the change.
The Casino was as magnificent as the surveillance pictures she had seen of it throughout the years. This locale was an extremely effective location for the Covenant to make their exchanges. No agent had ever effectively stopped a transfer here. No agent even came close.
Sydney found the first bathroom in sight and raced in. According to the calculations she had made on the plane, she had about one hour to get the disc and get ready to confront Sark. Her life had always been extraordinarily fast paced, but it was getting close to ridiculous.
After slipping off the t-shirt and jeans she had been wearing, she extracted a black harness/vest from the duffel bag she had brought with her on the flight and slid it on over the black catsuit that was underneath her normal clothing. She quickly snapped in a few guns.
This particular duffel bag was another one of those precious gifts from Marshall that he had enough common sense to include. It had a specific material lining the whole thing that kept any form of X-ray or scanning device from reading what was in the bag. Instead, a small computer projected the images of a normal bag scan to the surveillance equipment. It was a useful tool when the objective called for gun smuggling into Cuba.
Sydney stashed the bag on top of the ceiling tiles of the bathroom and located the vent she had picked out from the floor plans Marshall had also provided her with.
"There's no turning back now," she muttered. Sighing, she hefted herself up into the air vent and prepared to start a new chapter in her life.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Ten minutes later, Sydney found herself hoping out of the vent and right on top of a rather expensive looking desk. She almost wanted to groan at how predictable this situation was. She really thought by now the bad guys would get an up to par security systems for not only the windows and doors but also the ventilation system.
Hearing a noise at the door, she scurried of the desk and pressed herself again the wall next to the door. She quietly drew the gun that was loaded with tranquilizers. Killing people was not on her agenda for the night if she could help it.
A pair of the typical massive, bulky henchmen came into the room arguing. It seems that the first one had sworn he heard a bang from this room, but the other thought that was impossible since they hadn't taken their eyes of the door all right.
"This first guy is right," Syd said as she swiftly shot two darts into each of the men. They didn't even have time to mutter a 'huh'.
She stepped over their collapsed bodies and sat down in the chair in front of the computer terminal on the desk. Trying to remember the little lessons she had gotten from her college roommate in hacking, she went to work on breaking the code to the system and surfing her way through all the junk.
It only took her three tries before the screen beeped, welcoming her. She took out a blank disk from one of the pockets of her harness and popped it into the computer. To satisfy her curiosity, she scanned a few of the pages.
"This is a list of all of the Covenant's operatives and their profiles," she muttered in amazement. Now she understood why Sark thought this information was so important. With it, he could take down the whole Covenant in half the time he had first proposed to her. She pressed a few buttons and saw a small box pop up on the screen stating that the computer was preparing to copy.
Knowing what was about to be stored on the disk, Sydney also realized why the Covenant thought retrieving this information was so important. She didn't know how this third party had received information on the Covenant's entire list of operatives, but that wasn't the kind of information you wanted in anyone's hands but your own.
Once the computer was copying the Covenant's intended target to the disk, Sydney crouched down underneath the desk. She had learned that this process usually took a few minutes and it was best to stay as far out of sight as possible. The less suspicious this whole thing looked, the easier it would be for her to make a safe escape.
She heard the bing marking the completion of the copying process. Standing up slowly, she turned to get the disk out of the computer drive and found herself face to face with a rather menacingly looking knife.
The woman holding the knife smirked at her. "What do you think you're doing down there?"
"Well, I was just taking a little nap before I destroy this casino from the inside out," she answered somberly. No waiting for a reaction from the woman with the knife, Sydney kicked her feet out from under her. Then, she expertly bashed the woman's wrist into the side of the desk until she released her hold on the knife.
"But it looks like I'm going to have to take care of you before the fun can begin." The woman just continued to smirk at her. "Would you wipe that damn smirk off your face? I'm about to kick your ass. That's not something to smile about."
"My partner will be here within sixty seconds. There's no way you can escape," the woman said from above where Sydney's forearm was choking her.
"My task here is done. And it's not going to take me that long to put you out of commission."
Sydney backed off slightly and allowed the woman to stand up. A quick punch to the stomach sent the woman back down to her familiar position on the ground. Sydney felt for her tranquilizer gun and realized that she had left it by the doorway.
This caused a slight break in her concentration which the woman seized to flip Sydney over onto her back. A few punches to the head completely messed up what was left of concentration for Sydney.
"Looks like you may have needed more than the minute I gave you," the woman hissed in her ear.
Sydney felt around and finally got a grip on the discarded knife. "Not really," she said mildly and plunged the knife into her chest. She pushed the limp body off of hers and stood up. Typing a few commands into the computer, she heard the satisfying sound of the whole system erasing itself and then crashing.
After placing the disk safely back in her harness and standing on top of the desk, she looked down at the woman's corpse. "You weren't supposed to die. I'm sorry." With that, she lifted herself back up into the air vent.
When the woman's partner arrived, he had no idea what had happened. There were two unconscious bodies and his partner was dead, but there were no other signs of forced entry or the fact that anything was touched.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
Checking quickly that no one was within sight, Sydney smoothly lowered herself back down on the bathroom floor. She brought her duffle bag down with her and pulled out the outfit she had compiled to change into. It was important to wow Sark with both her physical looks and her usefulness as a spy tonight.
He needed to realize just how great an asset she really was.
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
The main lounge had music bouncing off its walls and rather tasteful yet scantily clad dancers dancing on stage. It was your typical casino, filled with pretty woman who happened to be gold diggers and overweight old men who happened to be rich. Trying to remain inconspicuous, Sydney kept to the walls and scanned the room for any signs of Sark.
She spotted him at the main bar and was pleased to see that he was staring intently at the table where the exchange was going to be made. The woman standing next to him didn't seem so keen on the fact that he cared more about the table than her flirting. It seemed as if the rather slutty looking woman was doing her best to flirt with Sark.
"I don't blame her," Sydney muttered to herself. Sark was dressed in one of his trademark suits that were obviously tailored to fit him and only him so perfectly. Although the woman looked as if she was ready to stand on a street corner, Sydney couldn't fault her for wanting to get Sark's attention. "Too bad he's an evil spy, lady."
Sydney tried to put Sark out of her mind temporarily and concentrate on the task in front of her. Just to be on the safe side, she popped open her purse to check that the disk was still in there. If this were an ideal situation, she would have stored the disk on her person. But alas the dress she had picked out didn't really have much room to hide anything on.
Laughing, she remembered her train of thought when she selected this dress out of her closet. She had wanted a dress that was fairly revealing without drawing too much attention. Sark's head needed to be on her rather than on the pros and cons of the proposition she planned on making.
She had quickly narrowed her dress selection down to two and finally chose the black. She figured that Sark was more of a classy kind of guy. So it was a small black dress instead of a rather sexy red number she had bought shortly before she got "kidnapped" for two years. It was best that she left that dress in storage, anyway, since it would only reminded her of the time she spent with Vaughn. She had bought the dress with him specifically in mind.
Back in the present time, Sydney smoothed her dress down slightly and prepared to work her way to where Sark was standing sipping lightly on a glass of wine. She worked her way across the lounge floor as she checked her wig was still in place and slipped a pair of sunglasses onto her eyes. It was imperative that she was as close to Sark as possible.
The whole time Sydney had been in the lounge she hadn't seen Sark say one word to the woman next to him so she wasn't surprised to see her walk away from the bar in defeat. She knew from experience that Sark was a hard person to crack, and that floozy definitely didn't have what it takes. A smug smile formed slightly on her face at the thought that she may be the one person she was aware of who could ever get Sark to drop everything and notice her.
Shrugging that thought out of her head, Sydney slipped into the hole at the bar vacated by the trashy woman and gave Sark a smile. He didn't pay her any mind.
"Someone's concentrating," she thought to herself.
She felt a tap on her left shoulder and turned to see a rather slimy looking man in a suit. "Yes?" she asked in a slight Brooklyn accent.
"I want to buy you a drink and then take you up to my room," the disgusting man said.
"We all have fantasies, buddy." She turned her attention back to the bartender in front of her and ordered a Cosmopolitan.
"Mine's going to come true," the man said as he grabbed her arm.
Sydney cursed to herself. If she couldn't get this man to stop immediately, he was going to single handedly ruin all the planning and work she had done in the past twenty-four hours. Sark would realize that she was standing next to him, and he'd be so furious there was no way he'd listen to her proposal.
"Listen. Where I come from, the guys who hit on me take the rejection like men, if you know what I mean. So just buzz off and find someone else to drunkenly hit on."
The man tightened his hold on her arm. "Where I come from, hookers do what they're told."
Sydney was about to ruin the whole thing and take this man down when she heard a familiar British voice intercede.
"Excuse me. I hate to butt in, but I thought I'd point out that a lady dressed like that is not a hooker. Where I come from, we call them classy. So if I were you, I would just take your beer and move on to the next target like the lady suggested."
The man took one look at the menacing glare coming from both Sark and Sydney, held up his hands, and backed away.
"Thank you," Sydney said to her rescuer. Any second now, she expected him to tell her the ruse was up.
"Not a problem. I'm always there for a damsel in distress." Sark set his wineglass down onto the bar and turned away from her. "Now I hope you forgive my rudeness, but I have a matter that needs my attention."
Sydney almost wanted to laugh. Her thrown together disguise had actually fooled Sark. He obviously didn't realize it was her that he had just saved. She filed it away as another thing on a mile long list to thank Marshall about.
Her reverie was interrupted as she saw the two men Marshall had pinpointed as the targets for the exchange entered the lounge laughing and took a seat at their vacant table. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sark perk up slightly.
The serene scene quickly ended as the man Sydney assumed was the Covenant representative started to scream and grabbed his companion forcefully. She could only presume that he had found out the system had been erased a little while earlier and there was no disk to exchange.
Sark showed no reaction to the fight that was going on and the fact that the Covenant representative had just violently hauled his companion out of the lounge. Sydney knew his mind was reeling with questions, though. His whole operation depended heavily on intercepting the disk.
A small ring went off next to her, and she saw Sark reach into his pocket and pull out his cell phone.
"Tell me something good, Mason," he said into the phone. After a minute, she heard him mutter "shit" and hang up the phone. He slowly began to move his finger around the rim of his wineglass. In her time with him, Sydney had come to learn this was one of the small gestures he did to help calm himself down when he was frustrated or angry.
Seizing the moment, Sydney rested her hand gently on the hand that was touching the glass. "Something frustrating you?" she asked, keeping up with the Brooklyn accent.
"Business deals gone wrong."
"Maybe I can help you feel better," she said suggestively. Now she really did sound like the hooker that man had mistaken her for earlier.
"I don't have time for that, I'm afraid. Although you are a very tempting woman."
"You have a lady in your life," Sydney said. She figured if he was dumb enough not to recognize her, she might as well pump him for information. A good spy never ruins a golden opportunity when it presents itself.
"Yes and no," Sark said. "But I'm not going to discuss that with you. I'm sorry."
He made a move to leave the bar. Sydney stopped him by lightly grasping his arm. "Don't go. I think I have something you want."
Sark turned to her with an exasperated look on his face. "Listen. I told you I wasn't interested."
"And I'm not offering my body," she hissed as she pulled her sunglasses off and threw them onto the bar. Digging into her purse while avoiding direct eye contact, she extracted the disk that Sark so desperately desired. Smiling at him, she dropped her Brooklyn accent. "This is what I'm offering, Sark."
Sark looked at her in confusion. "Sydney? What the hell are you doing here? And dressed like that?"
"We'll get to that later. For now, I expect a thank you for this." She wagged the disk in front of his face. He made a grab for it, but she pulled it back out of his grasp. "Not so fast."
"That can't be what I think it is. My associate on the phone informed me that the system's been wiped so there's no way you could have gotten a copy of the identities of all the Covenant operatives. No way." He paused and squinted his eyes at her. "Unless..."
"Unless what?" she asked while still wiggling the disk in front of him but slightly out of reach.
"It's impossible. No agent has ever stopped an exchange in this casino. You're good, Agent Bristow, but you're not that good."
"No, you're right, Sark," she said with a smirk. "I'm better."
Sark smiled at her as he grabbed her arm and led her away from the bar. "Perhaps we should take this to a more private location."
Sydney nodded, slide the disk back into her purse, and let him lead her to the elevators. They entered the first one to open its doors, and Sark pressed the 51st button. He inserted a key into a small hole at the bottom of the keypad and gave it a complete turn before putting it back into his pocket.
"The penthouse?" she asked, obviously impressed.
"You know I like to travel in style. Admittingly, it wasn't the stealthiest move on my part. But I figured after months of being stuck babysitting you, I deserved a little luxury."
Sydney stuck her tongue out at him. They both retreated into a comfortable silence. She couldn't help but find herself studying him out of the corner of her eyes. He didn't look at all put out by the fact that she was holding the key to his success. Like always, he was the picture of calm. It was quite annoying.
The elevator doors opened straight into the penthouse. Sark led her over to one of the couches and pushed her down.
"So, where were we, Agent Bristow?" he asked as he sat down next to her.
"You were about to congratulate me for doing the one thing that no other agent, including yourself, has." She took the disk back out of her purse and set it down on the table.
"You're not afraid I'm just going to take that and kick you out of this suite."
"I know you enough to know that, number one, you have more manners than that, and number two, you still want to know why I'm doing all this."
"Touche." He smiled at her. "So you stole the disk, huh?"
"I did the one thing that no agent has ever tried. I made a disk myself hours before the exchange was going to be held. I erased the system behind me to insure that I had the only copy of the target. It wasn't that hard a scheme to dream up."
"And a fabulous mind like yours didn't have trouble dreaming it up, I'm sure. Especially with the resources of the CIA."
"No trouble what so ever. Though I'm happy to say I did it without the resources of the CIA. Told you I was good. You see, the CIA and I have parted ways. So no extra help there. I'm a free agent." Sydney paused to gauge Sark's reaction to this turn of events. She was surprised to see no reaction at all on his face at all. Damn him and his constant calmness. "Are you paying attention to any work I'm saying, Sark?" she hissed.
"I'm sorry, Sydney. But that dress you're wearing is incredibly distracting. I'll try to concentrate, but I may start dreaming about getting you out of it again. For that, I apologize in advance."
She chuckled and shook her head at him. "I'm glad to see you appreciate my dress selection. What did you call it... classy, I think."
"It's incredibly classy. And sexy at the same." Sark kept smiling at Sydney and staring her in the eyes.
"Last time we were together, I distinctly remember you wanted to me to keep my clothes on rather badly. What's changed?" Sydney just kept eye contact with him, waiting for the words she had said earlier to come out of his subconscious and sink in fully. Either that or an explanation about why he had changed his demeanor towards her so much since last they met. She only had to wait ten seconds.
"That's a explanation for another time," he said with his trademark smirk. Sydney almost laughed as she saw the smirk fade and his face blanch. "Did you just say that you are not working for the CIA anymore, Agent Bristow?"
"Just call me a freelance spy. And therefore, you shouldn't call me Agent Bristow anymore. Bristow will be just fine. Thank you."
"I told you before. I can't change it. Besides, Agent Bristow just roles off the tongue better."
She grabbed the disk and held it out in front of him. "I have a proposition for you."
"An exchange?" he asked.
"Yes. The disk in exchange for a job."
His mouth dropped open in surprise. "A job? You want me to give you a job? I've been begging you to work with me for years. The minute I give up trying to coerce you into it, you suddenly want to. You are such a woman, Agent Bristow."
"Too much of a woman for you, that's for sure," she whispered. "What do you say?"
"Let me get this clear. You want me to give you a job in my organization. In exchange for that, you're willing to give me the disk with the identities of all the Covenant's agents on it and the pleasure of being in your company every day from now on." He smirked at her. "That hardly seems fair, Sydney."
"It's to your advantage, though." She tried her best to keep the nervousness out of her voice. There was still an underlying fear that he wouldn't accept the proposition. She didn't know what she would do if he didn't. He was her best, and last, option.
Of course, Sark could tell she was nervous. It was apparent. As much as he liked seeing this uncharacteristic lapse in confidence, he really didn't want to drag out her suffering. Which was a strange new development for him. "I want to make something perfectly clear."
"You don't love me, right?" Sydney said rolling her eyes.
"That wasn't what I was going to say, but, yeah, I'm still not in love with you."
"But you want me. Your interest in my choice of dress is proof of that." Sydney threw her arms up in victory.
He laughed. "Anyone would be a fool to deny that you're a very easy woman to desire. However, the point I wanted to make is that this deal is extremely one sided. Which I don't like one bit. It has to be fair. Otherwise I won't even consider it."
"That's a load of bullshit and you know it. But what are you suggesting?" Sydney really had no idea where he was gong with this train of thought.
"I don't want you to work for me."
"You don't want me to work for you," she repeated incredulously.
"You are way above the level of just being my employee. I want you to be my partner in this, Sydney."
"Partners?" She stared at him in disbelief. "You want me to be your equal?"
"You always were my equal in this world, Sydney. Let's just make it official." He took the disk from her. "Anyway, I have a lot of analysis work on this disk that I need you to do. And then there are countless missions that I want you to accompany me on to take down the Covenant." Sark held out his hand to her.
Sydney smiled at him and shook it. "So, can I crash here for the night, partner?" she asked.
"There's a spare bedroom right over there," Sark said pointing over her shoulder. "We'll discuss the specifics of this partnership in the morning, I guess." He stared at her in amazement. "I can't believe you were the one to suggest this."
She also couldn't believe she was actually going into a partnership with Sark, the most evil agent in the book. It was slightly disconcerting. As was the fact that he was still staring at her with the strangest look on his face. "What?" she asked.
"Well, it's kind of sad, and I hate to bring it up," he started.
"Spit it out. You've never been short of words in the whole time I've known you."
"Last time we saw one another, I rejected you. I know I hurt you, and I'm sorry for that Sydney. But you were acting so strangely then."
"You called me on it, and you were right. I was trying to be the kind of woman I thought you wanted." She realized that he still had that perplexing look on his face. "And now? How am I acting now?"
"Well, I don't think I'd hesitate to sleep with you now. You're acting like the Sydney Bristow I always imagined taking into my bed." He began to laugh and continued laughing as he stood up. "Too bad we're business partners now."
She just glared at him as he retreated to his bedroom.
In the back of her mind, she was scolding herself for putting herself into another hopeless love situation. She figured by now she would have learned her lesson.
But, no, here she was. Slowly getting more and more unwelcome feelings towards the one man she knew she should never want and she couldn't possibly have.
She continued to scold her war-scarred heart as she settled in to the spare bedroom and the idea of her newly formed partnership with Sark.
