Little Child Lost
Chapter Eleven
Break
Irina headed into the London flat. She already had the feeling no one would be there. Jack followed her surprisingly obedient. He hadn't complained much about following orders from her. That shocked her. Jack was generally very vocal about his displeasure in taking orders from Irina Derevko. Weiss remained impartial, though occasionally she could catch a wave of bitterness from him. Possibly because he had been accidentally shot by her. She hadn't intended to shoot him, though it had proved even better as a distraction. One agent down and the whole operation fell apart. She could feel Agent Weiss' eyes on her, so she sent him a tight-lipped, condescending smirk. Weiss bit on his lip, narrowing his eyes. If they were looking for anybody else but Sydney, he would have disappeared long before this. But he'd become attached to Sydney. He'd spent hours with her since she'd returned. Sydney had practically become his best friend, his drinking buddy. She was better than Mike was. Whenever he was down about something, she always put it in perspective. At least he remembered the last two years. He tried to calm himself. He knew Irina was testing his patience and he refused to let her win. He wouldn't retaliate.
"Looks like you were wrong again, Derevko." Weiss said, a little more smugly than he'd intended. Irina didn't seem to be anymore irritated at him.
"So it seems."
Irina scanned the lavishly furnished apartment.
"We can stay her tonight. Tomorrow-tomorrow we'll go to Whitechapel. It's not far from London. And he just might take Sydney there."
"Why?" Jack asked, curiosity overcoming him.
"He has a cottage there. He used to live there when he was a boy. His mother owned the house. He bought it when he was seventeen, when I raised his salary considerably. I don't know why I didn't have us check there first. Sark would take Sydney somewhere he felt safe. He feels safe in Whitechapel."
"Why don't we go there tonight?"
Irina shook her head.
"We'll wait until the morning. They won't be leaving anytime soon."
"How do you know?"
"Sark likes to spend a long period of time in Whitechapel. He feels closer to his mother that way."
Irina had always pretended not to notice Sark's reliance on his mother's memory. He would retreat in them when he was exhausted and sick of everything that had happened. She never scolded him because she understood. She did the same, retreating into the recollections Laura Bristow had filed away in her mind's cabinet. Sydney was who she thought of when she got too stressed. Her little girl and her husband that adored her. She was a murderer, a liar, a cheat, but she was never hypocritical. The only thing she worried about was what Sark would do if he found out the truth.
"We'll leave in the morning."
Irina walked away from the two men, heading into Sark's familiar bedroom. They could fend for themselves when it came to finding a place to sleep.
Sydney was becoming discouraged. She and Sark had been trying to crack The Covenant's code for three days and they'd hardly made a dent. She was beginning to wonder if they would ever find out about Julia Thorne's persona, other than being a cold-hearted murderer. She switched places with Sark at the computer, giving him a chance to work on it again. She thought she would go cross-eyed from staring at the computer screen and she wouldn't be surprised if her hands froze in keyboard position. Sark hadn't spoken much the last couple of days. A few attractive grunts were about all she could pry out of him. Sydney usually liked his silence, but she needed something to break the tension between them. Anything, actually. They sat in complete quiet, with only the annoying tapping of keys breaking it. Sydney watched Sark's face, deciding the view of him was 47 times better than staring at the ERROR message on the laptop. Sydney watched as the smirk emerged on his stoic, serious face. His eyes were suddenly crystal pools sparkling at her as his smooth British voice said in triumph, "I'm in!"
Sydney felt excitement and relief and dread surge inside of her. She jumped off the couch and threw her arms around Sark. It wasn't something he'd expected and he wasn't sure how to react. The hug seemed very uncharacteristic since Sydney had a deep distaste of him. Sark finally wrapped his arms around her, allowing the warmth to overcome him. Sydney pulled away and glanced back at the computer.
"I thought if I never looked at another computer screen again, I would be happy. I was wrong."
He reclaimed his seat and she leaned over his shoulder as he began clicking on the folders, the blue glowing on both of them in the dark.