Sydney helped Vaughn to the back of the plane, where Dixon and Jack were
already crouched over, deep in conversation. Although certain that Will was
still asleep, they spoke softly even though very little could be heard over
the drone of the engines. There was much that needed to be discussed, which
Will could not be privy to--at least not yet.
"Dixon, this is Agent Michael Vaughn, my handler at the CIA. Vaughn, this is Marcus Dixon."
Sydney glanced back and forth between the two men and blushed, suddenly recalling that Dixon had witnessed her emotional reunion with Vaughn. He had no doubt surmised that her relationship with Vaughn extended far beyond the normal agent-handler protocol. She hoped he wouldn't say anything in front of her father--unaware that Jack and Will had witnessed the embrace themselves.
Dixon's smile, which had appeared on his face as she and Vaughn approached, widened further. "I believe Agent Vaughn and I already met in an alley in Denpasar. I still have the goose-egg-sized lump on my head to prove it," he said massaging the back of his head, laughing.
Vaughn looked sheepish. "Sorry about that. It wasn't really a fair fight. I was lucky I came up to you from behind. You seem to be in great shape, even after Aconcagua."
Dixon smile faded momentarily at the mention of Aconcagua, but then resurfaced. "Of course," he said, as a new piece in the puzzle shifted into place. "You must have put together the CIA team that extracted us. If Syd hadn't contacted you, I probably wouldn't have made it. I have both you and Syd to thank for that. "
"Dixon, how did you find out I was a double agent for the CIA? And who told you about our mission to Taipei?" Sydney asked.
"After I left you at the pier, I drove to SD-6 and sat in my car for over an hour, trying to work up the nerve to go in there and denounce you to security section, but I couldn't. I just couldn't," he said, glancing up at Sydney, troubled.
"I didn't know what to think. All the evidence pointed to the fact that you were betraying SD-6--and for all I knew, the country, but your protestations were so--so vehement--I went over all the excuses and rationalizations I had made for you again in my mind. There was only one that seemed to make any sense. I reasoned that if the CIA had any suspicions about SD-6 or any of its activities, they might recruit an agent inside the agency to investigate," Dixon said, glancing around the circle, "so I went to the L.A. field office instead and demanded to see someone in charge of covert ops. I told them that I suspected you were a double agent working against SD-6, and unless they confirmed that her activities were sanctioned by the CIA, I would turn you in to security section at SD-6."
Dixon's words were met with stunned silence. Sydney opened her mouth and then closed it once more. Without knowing that SD-6 was not a covert branch of the CIA, Dixon had come remarkably close to guessing the truth. It was at that point that Sydney and Vaughn exchanged glances.
"Whom did you speak with at the CIA?" he asked, the question coming out more sharply than he intended.
Dixon chuckled. "Well, there seemed to be some confusion at the office about that. I was told the agent assigned as Sydney's handler had been suspended recently and taken off her case," Dixon said, turning to Vaughn with one eyebrow raised.
When Vaughn nodded in confirmation, Sydney turned to him in surprise and dismay. "Vaughn--what happened? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I was going to tell you after we got back from Taipei. I didn't want to concern you. You had enough on your mind worrying about Will," Vaughn said, shooting Sydney a guilty look, but then returning his focus to Dixon. "So, then what?"
"Then, I was told I should speak to an Agent Haladki, but he did not respond to being paged," Dixon replied, looking inquiringly around the group.
Vaughn and Sydney both turned to Jack. "Haladki was the source you referred to earlier. Wasn't he?" Sydney asked.
Jack assented. "His knowledge of the circumference gave him away as the mole. I extracted the information I needed from him for this mission and then eliminated him," he stated in a perfectly controlled voice.
"Haladki's body was found later at the warehouse, along with the tape you made of his confession," Dixon stated. "Devlin wasn't precisely thrilled with your methods of extracting information. Let's just say you didn't exactly follow CIA protocol. However, taping Haladki's confession was a smart move, Jack. Not only did it exonerate you and provide the CIA with evidence of Haladki's activities, it gave me the information I eventually needed to follow you to Taipei."
It took a minute for Sydney and Vaughn to absorb this information.
"So, who told you about Sydney and the mission to Taipei ? Devlin?" Vaughn said, resuming his questioning of Dixon.
Dixon shook his head. "They finally let me talk with an Agent Weiss who revealed that Sydney had been spying on SD-6 covertly for the past nine months at the CIA's behest. He told me he couldn't tell me any more without risking Sydney's cover and placing me and my family in jeopardy, but later he relented."
"What precisely did Agent Weiss tell you?" Vaughn asked, his voice urgent. " I have reason to believe he may have been feeding information to Haladki for months and may be just as dangerous."
"Weiss was helping Haladki?" Sydney asked incredulously.
Dixon glanced at Sydney and then back at Vaughn. "Agent Weiss was aware that circumstances made it appear that he was the mole. He wanted you to know that in an effort to locate the source of the security breaches, the CIA did a sweep of all the offices and found bugs in both your office and Agent Weiss's. Agent Weiss believed that as a result of the bugs, Sydney's cover was compromised, as was all the intelligence you both had collected over the last several months. He told me he was all but certain that you had gone to help Jack and Sydney rescue Will, and he was very worried that you were all walking into a very dangerous and elaborate trap."
Sydney watched as a mixture of doubt, shame, and then a surge of anger flashed across Vaughn's face.
He had considered Weiss a traitor, had been certain of it, even though Eric was his best friend. Of course, it was reassuring to discover Weiss had not fed information to Haladki knowingly, but Vaughn still felt betrayed. It was Eric's actions, after all, that had caused Devlin to remove him as Sydney's handler. It was then that his thoughts turned to Dixon. He didn't know what he would have done in Eric's place if Dixon had walked into his office, but he sure as hell wouldn't have sent him to Taipei. What was Eric thinking?
He slammed his palm down on an upended crate. "So Eric told you not only about Sydney's status as a double agent, he sent you to Taipei to extract us? Doesn't he know he's endangering your life, as well as risking any chance we have of keeping Sydney's cover intact?"
A sudden coughing fit forced him to suspend his diatribe. Sydney went to offer him her support, but he shook his head, indicating he didn't need it.
Dixon waited for Vaughn's coughing to subside. When he resumed his story, his voice and expression remained dignified, but a thin undercurrent of anger hovered just below the surface. "Agent Weiss had every reason to believe that Sydney's cover was blown whether I went to Taipei or not, and he felt responsible for putting you and Sydney in danger. However, he didn't ask me to go--I volunteered. I told him that I had spent 21 years believing that I was serving my country by working for SD-6 and the last 7 of those I spent as Sydney's partner. After I discovered the truth about SD- 6, do you really think Agent Weiss could have stopped me from going to help Sydney? You of all people should understand that. Isn't that precisely what you did yourself, even though they suspended you?"
Vaughn rubbed his forehead and ran a hand through his spiky, disheveled hair. "Of course," he said, sighing. "You're right. I'm sorry."
It was Dixon who had found Sydney and helped her escape. For all he knew, if Dixon hadn't been there, none of them may have gotten out alive. What was wrong with him? The icy cabin felt stuffy to him, and he swayed on his feet, feeling a bit light-headed.
Dixon's gaze left Vaughn and moved to Sydney. Tears glistened in his eyes and his voice shook. "Syd, it was bad enough to think you were the traitor. Now I learn that it was I who was unwittingly betraying my country. I don't know what upsets me more. That SD-6 lied to me for so many years, or that you knew for the last year and didn't tell me."
Sydney covered her mouth with her hand, as tears silently slid down her cheeks. She had dreaded this moment. There were no words to express her regret, but still she tried.
"Dixon, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I wanted to tell you! There wasn't a day that went by when I didn't agonize over not telling you," she whispered. "Dixon, forgive me! I wanted to tell you so badly!"
"Sydney's not to blame," Vaughn said sternly. "I am. I ordered her to keep the truth from you. In the beginning, I felt it was necessary because the CIA had no way of telling which agents knew of SD-6's true agenda and which had been duped into believing they were working for the CIA. After you sent the request for support when McKenas Cole stormed SD-6, I knew you believed you were working for a covert branch of the CIA. However, I convinced Sydney that by telling you, she would be endangering you and your family. I'm sorry. I thought it was for the best-for you and for Sydney. Perhaps I was wrong," he concluded, a note of bitterness in his voice.
Vaughn knew by now that there were no simple answers in this line of business. Everyday he made decisions on which the lives of countless other agents depended. It was like a game of chess. The configuration of the entire board could change as the result of one move--except the casualties weren't mere chess pieces. Lives of men and women--agents like his father with families and loved ones--were sacrificed simply to get the next vital piece of information the government needed to stay one step ahead of covert enemies like SD-6. The trouble was there was no endgame in sight. The game could go on forever and the casual victims and collateral damage on both sides would just continue to mount.
Dixon shook his head back and forth slowly, following his own train of thought.
"All those missions for SD-6! Syd, at any point I could have done something that might have exposed you and endangered your entire operation. Oh, God, Badenweiler." Dixon's voice faded, as realization suddenly dawned. "The second detonator. Syd, the way you reacted. you said it was because of Danny, but that wasn't it, was it? There must have been a team in there. My God, Sydney, how many men did I kill?" he said, his voice hoarse, a look of horror contorting his face.
"No, no, not you," Sydney said fiercely, crouching down towards Dixon and grasping his hands. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't know."
"I take full responsibilities for the deaths at Badenweiler," Vaughn interjected softly, but firmly. "All of us wish those deaths could have been prevented and the lives of those men spared, but as I told Sydney, everyone on that team knew the risks of performing specials ops. They died serving their country."
Vaughn didn't add the words "like my father." At that instant the memory of standing by his father's coffin as an eight-year-old boy merged in his mind with the memory of comforting a boy, much like he himself had been, at the funeral of the agents who had died at Badenweiler. It made his head swim, and he reached out to an upturned crate. To Vaughn's surprise, Jack reached up to steady him, a look of concern in his eyes. He was even more astonished when the usually taciturn man broke his silence to defend him.
"Dixon, your ignorance was the best way to guarantee Sydney's cover and her safety," Jack said shortly. "We simply couldn't afford to bring in a third double agent prior to this, and as Sydney's handler, Agent Vaughn acted in the best interests both of the CIA and the agent in his charge. Those deaths were the result of actions taken by SD-6. No one should take the blame except Arvin Sloane," Jack affirmed. "However, now that you and Will both know the truth, and 'The Man' has compromised Sydney's cover, something else must be worked out. But first, we need to find out exactly how much 'The Man' knows and how he intends to use it. What did the three of you discover at the warehouse?"
Sydney glanced at Vaughn. His eyes had taken on a glazed, feverish look, and all the color had drained from his face. "We can talk about this later. Vaughn, I think you should rest."
Vaughn shook his head stubbornly. "I'm alright. Let me tell you what I know. It isn't much."
With his lungs burning from the lack of oxygen, he had left the small window, from which Sydney caught her last glimpse of him and found a small pocket of air near the ceiling of the sealed corridor. When he dived back down to check on Sydney, he saw her being dragged away by guards.
By this time, the wave which had slammed him into the door had begun to recede. It reminded him of the wave machine he had once spotted in Devlin's office. If you tipped one side, the wave washed against the opposite end, ricocheted, and flowed back to the end at which it had started, repeating this process, until it dissipated and equilibrium was reached.
He followed the wave to its source, taking advantage of the increasingly larger air pockets he found a long the way. Once he reached the lab, the water had leveled out, and he was able to find a foothold and climb up to the rickety catwalk that still hung down from the ceiling of the laboratory. He resolved to stay hidden there until he had recovered enough energy to move. Soon guards were swarming over what was left of the lab, but none of them even glanced at the catwalk.
When he felt it was safe, he moved out of his hiding place, only to be ambushed by a guard who got in several kicks before Vaughn could trip him up and take his gun. Slightly more confident now that he was armed, Vaughn began searching the premises for Sydney, but it was slow going. His progress was hampered both by his injuries and his need to remain undetected. In the end, Dixon and Sydney had found him.
It wasn't a long story, but Vaughn was clearly fatigued by the telling of it. Sydney noticed that as he talked, he braced his ribs with one arm and increasingly stopped to catch his breath before going on.
"The guards seemed to be searching the lab for something in particular," he said, when suddenly he was seized with a coughing fit and couldn't go on for several minutes.
Finally recovered, he pulled something out of his pocket. "After the guards left, I decided to look around myself and found this, wedged into the side of a crate." He held out a small prism, shaped like a pyramid, no bigger than a gaming die. He rolled the pyramid in the palm of his hand, and variegated rays of light shot from its surface even in the dark cabin. A glyph was etched into the surface of each side of the prism, one of which Sydney recognized: the Rambaldi eye.
"Marshall would have a field day with this. It must be a part of the Mueller device," she breathed.
"A very important part, if the guards' concern is any indication," Jack stated. "Excellent work, Agent Vaughn. Now I suggest you take Sydney's advice and rest."
Jack's voice was kind, and Vaughn looked into the older man's eyes. Something had shifted in their relationship. Antagonism and antipathy had changed to respect. The two men gazed at each other, and Vaughn finally assented.
"Dixon, this is Agent Michael Vaughn, my handler at the CIA. Vaughn, this is Marcus Dixon."
Sydney glanced back and forth between the two men and blushed, suddenly recalling that Dixon had witnessed her emotional reunion with Vaughn. He had no doubt surmised that her relationship with Vaughn extended far beyond the normal agent-handler protocol. She hoped he wouldn't say anything in front of her father--unaware that Jack and Will had witnessed the embrace themselves.
Dixon's smile, which had appeared on his face as she and Vaughn approached, widened further. "I believe Agent Vaughn and I already met in an alley in Denpasar. I still have the goose-egg-sized lump on my head to prove it," he said massaging the back of his head, laughing.
Vaughn looked sheepish. "Sorry about that. It wasn't really a fair fight. I was lucky I came up to you from behind. You seem to be in great shape, even after Aconcagua."
Dixon smile faded momentarily at the mention of Aconcagua, but then resurfaced. "Of course," he said, as a new piece in the puzzle shifted into place. "You must have put together the CIA team that extracted us. If Syd hadn't contacted you, I probably wouldn't have made it. I have both you and Syd to thank for that. "
"Dixon, how did you find out I was a double agent for the CIA? And who told you about our mission to Taipei?" Sydney asked.
"After I left you at the pier, I drove to SD-6 and sat in my car for over an hour, trying to work up the nerve to go in there and denounce you to security section, but I couldn't. I just couldn't," he said, glancing up at Sydney, troubled.
"I didn't know what to think. All the evidence pointed to the fact that you were betraying SD-6--and for all I knew, the country, but your protestations were so--so vehement--I went over all the excuses and rationalizations I had made for you again in my mind. There was only one that seemed to make any sense. I reasoned that if the CIA had any suspicions about SD-6 or any of its activities, they might recruit an agent inside the agency to investigate," Dixon said, glancing around the circle, "so I went to the L.A. field office instead and demanded to see someone in charge of covert ops. I told them that I suspected you were a double agent working against SD-6, and unless they confirmed that her activities were sanctioned by the CIA, I would turn you in to security section at SD-6."
Dixon's words were met with stunned silence. Sydney opened her mouth and then closed it once more. Without knowing that SD-6 was not a covert branch of the CIA, Dixon had come remarkably close to guessing the truth. It was at that point that Sydney and Vaughn exchanged glances.
"Whom did you speak with at the CIA?" he asked, the question coming out more sharply than he intended.
Dixon chuckled. "Well, there seemed to be some confusion at the office about that. I was told the agent assigned as Sydney's handler had been suspended recently and taken off her case," Dixon said, turning to Vaughn with one eyebrow raised.
When Vaughn nodded in confirmation, Sydney turned to him in surprise and dismay. "Vaughn--what happened? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I was going to tell you after we got back from Taipei. I didn't want to concern you. You had enough on your mind worrying about Will," Vaughn said, shooting Sydney a guilty look, but then returning his focus to Dixon. "So, then what?"
"Then, I was told I should speak to an Agent Haladki, but he did not respond to being paged," Dixon replied, looking inquiringly around the group.
Vaughn and Sydney both turned to Jack. "Haladki was the source you referred to earlier. Wasn't he?" Sydney asked.
Jack assented. "His knowledge of the circumference gave him away as the mole. I extracted the information I needed from him for this mission and then eliminated him," he stated in a perfectly controlled voice.
"Haladki's body was found later at the warehouse, along with the tape you made of his confession," Dixon stated. "Devlin wasn't precisely thrilled with your methods of extracting information. Let's just say you didn't exactly follow CIA protocol. However, taping Haladki's confession was a smart move, Jack. Not only did it exonerate you and provide the CIA with evidence of Haladki's activities, it gave me the information I eventually needed to follow you to Taipei."
It took a minute for Sydney and Vaughn to absorb this information.
"So, who told you about Sydney and the mission to Taipei ? Devlin?" Vaughn said, resuming his questioning of Dixon.
Dixon shook his head. "They finally let me talk with an Agent Weiss who revealed that Sydney had been spying on SD-6 covertly for the past nine months at the CIA's behest. He told me he couldn't tell me any more without risking Sydney's cover and placing me and my family in jeopardy, but later he relented."
"What precisely did Agent Weiss tell you?" Vaughn asked, his voice urgent. " I have reason to believe he may have been feeding information to Haladki for months and may be just as dangerous."
"Weiss was helping Haladki?" Sydney asked incredulously.
Dixon glanced at Sydney and then back at Vaughn. "Agent Weiss was aware that circumstances made it appear that he was the mole. He wanted you to know that in an effort to locate the source of the security breaches, the CIA did a sweep of all the offices and found bugs in both your office and Agent Weiss's. Agent Weiss believed that as a result of the bugs, Sydney's cover was compromised, as was all the intelligence you both had collected over the last several months. He told me he was all but certain that you had gone to help Jack and Sydney rescue Will, and he was very worried that you were all walking into a very dangerous and elaborate trap."
Sydney watched as a mixture of doubt, shame, and then a surge of anger flashed across Vaughn's face.
He had considered Weiss a traitor, had been certain of it, even though Eric was his best friend. Of course, it was reassuring to discover Weiss had not fed information to Haladki knowingly, but Vaughn still felt betrayed. It was Eric's actions, after all, that had caused Devlin to remove him as Sydney's handler. It was then that his thoughts turned to Dixon. He didn't know what he would have done in Eric's place if Dixon had walked into his office, but he sure as hell wouldn't have sent him to Taipei. What was Eric thinking?
He slammed his palm down on an upended crate. "So Eric told you not only about Sydney's status as a double agent, he sent you to Taipei to extract us? Doesn't he know he's endangering your life, as well as risking any chance we have of keeping Sydney's cover intact?"
A sudden coughing fit forced him to suspend his diatribe. Sydney went to offer him her support, but he shook his head, indicating he didn't need it.
Dixon waited for Vaughn's coughing to subside. When he resumed his story, his voice and expression remained dignified, but a thin undercurrent of anger hovered just below the surface. "Agent Weiss had every reason to believe that Sydney's cover was blown whether I went to Taipei or not, and he felt responsible for putting you and Sydney in danger. However, he didn't ask me to go--I volunteered. I told him that I had spent 21 years believing that I was serving my country by working for SD-6 and the last 7 of those I spent as Sydney's partner. After I discovered the truth about SD- 6, do you really think Agent Weiss could have stopped me from going to help Sydney? You of all people should understand that. Isn't that precisely what you did yourself, even though they suspended you?"
Vaughn rubbed his forehead and ran a hand through his spiky, disheveled hair. "Of course," he said, sighing. "You're right. I'm sorry."
It was Dixon who had found Sydney and helped her escape. For all he knew, if Dixon hadn't been there, none of them may have gotten out alive. What was wrong with him? The icy cabin felt stuffy to him, and he swayed on his feet, feeling a bit light-headed.
Dixon's gaze left Vaughn and moved to Sydney. Tears glistened in his eyes and his voice shook. "Syd, it was bad enough to think you were the traitor. Now I learn that it was I who was unwittingly betraying my country. I don't know what upsets me more. That SD-6 lied to me for so many years, or that you knew for the last year and didn't tell me."
Sydney covered her mouth with her hand, as tears silently slid down her cheeks. She had dreaded this moment. There were no words to express her regret, but still she tried.
"Dixon, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I wanted to tell you! There wasn't a day that went by when I didn't agonize over not telling you," she whispered. "Dixon, forgive me! I wanted to tell you so badly!"
"Sydney's not to blame," Vaughn said sternly. "I am. I ordered her to keep the truth from you. In the beginning, I felt it was necessary because the CIA had no way of telling which agents knew of SD-6's true agenda and which had been duped into believing they were working for the CIA. After you sent the request for support when McKenas Cole stormed SD-6, I knew you believed you were working for a covert branch of the CIA. However, I convinced Sydney that by telling you, she would be endangering you and your family. I'm sorry. I thought it was for the best-for you and for Sydney. Perhaps I was wrong," he concluded, a note of bitterness in his voice.
Vaughn knew by now that there were no simple answers in this line of business. Everyday he made decisions on which the lives of countless other agents depended. It was like a game of chess. The configuration of the entire board could change as the result of one move--except the casualties weren't mere chess pieces. Lives of men and women--agents like his father with families and loved ones--were sacrificed simply to get the next vital piece of information the government needed to stay one step ahead of covert enemies like SD-6. The trouble was there was no endgame in sight. The game could go on forever and the casual victims and collateral damage on both sides would just continue to mount.
Dixon shook his head back and forth slowly, following his own train of thought.
"All those missions for SD-6! Syd, at any point I could have done something that might have exposed you and endangered your entire operation. Oh, God, Badenweiler." Dixon's voice faded, as realization suddenly dawned. "The second detonator. Syd, the way you reacted. you said it was because of Danny, but that wasn't it, was it? There must have been a team in there. My God, Sydney, how many men did I kill?" he said, his voice hoarse, a look of horror contorting his face.
"No, no, not you," Sydney said fiercely, crouching down towards Dixon and grasping his hands. "It wasn't your fault. You didn't know."
"I take full responsibilities for the deaths at Badenweiler," Vaughn interjected softly, but firmly. "All of us wish those deaths could have been prevented and the lives of those men spared, but as I told Sydney, everyone on that team knew the risks of performing specials ops. They died serving their country."
Vaughn didn't add the words "like my father." At that instant the memory of standing by his father's coffin as an eight-year-old boy merged in his mind with the memory of comforting a boy, much like he himself had been, at the funeral of the agents who had died at Badenweiler. It made his head swim, and he reached out to an upturned crate. To Vaughn's surprise, Jack reached up to steady him, a look of concern in his eyes. He was even more astonished when the usually taciturn man broke his silence to defend him.
"Dixon, your ignorance was the best way to guarantee Sydney's cover and her safety," Jack said shortly. "We simply couldn't afford to bring in a third double agent prior to this, and as Sydney's handler, Agent Vaughn acted in the best interests both of the CIA and the agent in his charge. Those deaths were the result of actions taken by SD-6. No one should take the blame except Arvin Sloane," Jack affirmed. "However, now that you and Will both know the truth, and 'The Man' has compromised Sydney's cover, something else must be worked out. But first, we need to find out exactly how much 'The Man' knows and how he intends to use it. What did the three of you discover at the warehouse?"
Sydney glanced at Vaughn. His eyes had taken on a glazed, feverish look, and all the color had drained from his face. "We can talk about this later. Vaughn, I think you should rest."
Vaughn shook his head stubbornly. "I'm alright. Let me tell you what I know. It isn't much."
With his lungs burning from the lack of oxygen, he had left the small window, from which Sydney caught her last glimpse of him and found a small pocket of air near the ceiling of the sealed corridor. When he dived back down to check on Sydney, he saw her being dragged away by guards.
By this time, the wave which had slammed him into the door had begun to recede. It reminded him of the wave machine he had once spotted in Devlin's office. If you tipped one side, the wave washed against the opposite end, ricocheted, and flowed back to the end at which it had started, repeating this process, until it dissipated and equilibrium was reached.
He followed the wave to its source, taking advantage of the increasingly larger air pockets he found a long the way. Once he reached the lab, the water had leveled out, and he was able to find a foothold and climb up to the rickety catwalk that still hung down from the ceiling of the laboratory. He resolved to stay hidden there until he had recovered enough energy to move. Soon guards were swarming over what was left of the lab, but none of them even glanced at the catwalk.
When he felt it was safe, he moved out of his hiding place, only to be ambushed by a guard who got in several kicks before Vaughn could trip him up and take his gun. Slightly more confident now that he was armed, Vaughn began searching the premises for Sydney, but it was slow going. His progress was hampered both by his injuries and his need to remain undetected. In the end, Dixon and Sydney had found him.
It wasn't a long story, but Vaughn was clearly fatigued by the telling of it. Sydney noticed that as he talked, he braced his ribs with one arm and increasingly stopped to catch his breath before going on.
"The guards seemed to be searching the lab for something in particular," he said, when suddenly he was seized with a coughing fit and couldn't go on for several minutes.
Finally recovered, he pulled something out of his pocket. "After the guards left, I decided to look around myself and found this, wedged into the side of a crate." He held out a small prism, shaped like a pyramid, no bigger than a gaming die. He rolled the pyramid in the palm of his hand, and variegated rays of light shot from its surface even in the dark cabin. A glyph was etched into the surface of each side of the prism, one of which Sydney recognized: the Rambaldi eye.
"Marshall would have a field day with this. It must be a part of the Mueller device," she breathed.
"A very important part, if the guards' concern is any indication," Jack stated. "Excellent work, Agent Vaughn. Now I suggest you take Sydney's advice and rest."
Jack's voice was kind, and Vaughn looked into the older man's eyes. Something had shifted in their relationship. Antagonism and antipathy had changed to respect. The two men gazed at each other, and Vaughn finally assented.