Chapter Nineteen
The day was fun, no one was prepared to admit that to everyone one else, but Sydney told Vaughn she'd had fun, and Vaughn told her he had too, not that he was sure how he'd managed to have fun, but he knew he had. Irina told Sydney she'd had fun and Jack told himself over and over, trying to work out why and how to stop. About ten minutes after sitting down on the bed and beginning to mentally chastise himself for it, he realized he was getting mad at himself for having fun and quickly stopped, seeing the stupidity.
Breakfast had been difficult, the waiter lingering at the door as they made their way off, having eaten full meals and shared cold stares. He seemed to think Irina had something to say to him and when she turned and waved graciously and with a tinge of flirtatiousness, he was only encouraged into winking and standing at the door as the four of them made their way down the promenade. Vaughn on the outside next to Sydney who walked beside her father with Irina next to the river.
The waiter had tracked down one of the Crown Casino's many concierges and she'd made herself welcome to join them as they finished off their coffees, pulling up a chair and pulling out a clipboard and pen from a bag beside her. "Mr and Mrs Pearson, Mr and Mrs Sims," Sydney beamed at the woman and earned herself a grin in return. "I'm told you're looking for some help."
The woman, Emily, was short and a little pudgy, she had her own beauty and was probably about Irina's age, perhaps a little younger. She had long black hair, much like Sydney's and Irina's at the time and blue eyes, her face was covered in freckles and her persona oozed confidence and cheer. Sydney took an immediate liking to her and led much of the conversation, her mother chipping in here and there with locations.
At the end of it all, Jack was sitting back, looked mad, Vaughn just a little scared and Sydney and Irina were grinned as though they had just shared a dirty little joke. Of course this was not the case, what they had done, was organized the day. It was, Vaughn was sure, the busiest day he'd ever heard of, personally he'd been thinking of spending the entire day at the pool with Sydney, but that was doubtful considering even they kept to schedule, they wouldn't be back until after nine. They were to head to the zoo for three or four hours, doing whatever they wanted and to find lunch if they wished, that would take them up to around two pm when they were expected to head for the central business district, the shops. Emily had made reservations at the fifteen top shops at the Paris end where the women would try on endless amounts of clothes and hopefully find something to buy.
This was the bit Vaughn had not been looking for. After that they were to move further along Collins Street, away from the shops, sadly, and to Melbourne's tallest building, the Rialto where they would go up and eat dinner on the top floor, they'd return to Crown in time for the light's show that occurred every night at eight and then they had allocated themselves free time until the next morning.
They'd headed off, taking the rental, straight away, Jack driving as Irina started writing down account details, even time they came to a set of lights, he'd let his eyes scan over to where her hand continued to scrawl out numbers, dates, places and names, her had to ask, "You're obviously making all of these numbers up." It was exasperating that she be so obvious to him.
She'd snapped her head up, the pair in the back, stopping from their discussion of their favourite animals and turning towards the front to listen. Irina answered with caution, shocked considering the numbers were in fact true. "What do you mean?"
"Well look, you're writing them down without even having to think. A hundred and eight accounts, that's thousands of numbers." The light turned green and he went back to concentrating on the road, moving slowly through the mid city traffic.
She looked at him for a second, "I have a good memory." Sydney's eyes narrowed in the back seat, sensing there was more to what her mother was saying.
Jack beat her to questioning her words, "You have a good memory? No one has that good a memory."
Irina cut through him with her words, causing him to swerve around a red van and speed up, "Obviously I do."
Jack glared, there was no way he was going to be able to win this, so he just pushed for more information, "Why?"
"Because it was my job." He shook his heads.
"They're fake numbers," she raised an eyebrow," You're good with numbers then?" She just glared at him, appearing bored, "Prove it."
"Stop acting like a child," she told him, aware they were being surveyed from behind, "And slow down. We do not need to be arrested." He didn't respond but the car did drop back into the flow of the other vehicles, "Jack, I don't need to prove it, just ring through Kendall."
He shook his head, "And what if this is all just to get me in trouble?"
Irina was suddenly aware at how this must have looked as she stopped glaring, "I'm just good with numbers, dates, names, quiz me, if you think I should know it, I will."
Now it was Jack's turn to find himself in hot water, what was he going to ask, immediately, intimate questions he was not going to bring up appeared in his mind and once in they wouldn't leave, he was tempted to ask one, just to be right. But he wouldn't and her voice soon reappeared, silky and teasing, "What's the matter? Nothing to ask? You trust me?"
It wasn't really something mean to say, of course, it was attacking him and he reacted in just the way he was required, shocking Sydney and Vaughn with a question, "What day were we married?" He immediately felt like hitting himself over the head, a feeling she commonly aroused.
She, on the other hand, was just staring at him, as though it was an insult and it was in a way, "It was a Tuesday, because you didn't want anyone to be there."
"Date," he hated himself for asking, but he wanted to see her mess up, typically, these were very easy questions and Sydney almost felt sorry for him as he was obviously floundering.
"Twenty third." It was quite and emotionless, not even teasing but she quickly continued, her voice building with something akin to spite, "It rained, started raining at around three and you carted all the guests into the house, of course, the priest wouldn't fit so you told them all to leave. I remember it ended up just being me, you and your parents, along with the priest. In the living room, the couch was green."
He went to interrupt, to make her stop, winning no longer important, but she raised her voice another notch and he was forced to drive and listen, "We got married and your parents left, you went to cook dinner, a rare occasion, but our flight didn't leave until the next morning. The meal," she shot an accusing look at him as he struggled not to run off the road, the details of that particular night coming back to him with a vengeance, "Was, if I'm not mistaken, left on the stove until the following morning."
Vaughn and Sydney both had a fair idea of why and, while Sydney understood this was not something a daughter wanted to hear from her parents, they were both, nonetheless, intrigued. But Irina stopped, "Shall I go on?"
Jack shook his head and pulled over, spying a bank where Irina could grab her money, hopefully, they wouldn't mind her taking so much out, the concierge had called ahead to make sure and the bank had promised to be able to give them ten thousand in cash, the rest was being put into the check account.
Irina went in along with Vaughn while Jack stayed in the car, pulling out his phone and calling Kendall, it was just going eleven in Australia so Kendall picked up, on the other side of the world, at six pm the day before. "Kendall."
Jack spoke quickly, "I have Intel on Derevko's accounts." His voice was level and professional.
"What?"
"I have the numbers on one hundred and eight, I need you to check one to make sure then I'll fax the numbers through."
Kendall was sounding a little stunned, "How much money are we talking about?"
Jack did the quick calculation, realized just how much cash he was dealing with, "Anywhere between nine and eighteen million sir. Here are the numbers," Jack rattled off the numbers, quickly, listening carefully as he heard the keyboard through the phone.
Kendall's voice came back through shocked, "That's her picture, and there's almost half a million in this account alone."
Jack was silently shocked as well, she hadn't lied except for the fact that there was more money in this one than she'd said, "Yes sir, bye." He hung up as Irina walked out the back, Vaughn trailing behind her, they climbed into the car and he asked, "Everything fine?"
Vaughn answered, "Yes, everything is as she said."
Irina just rolled her eyes as they drove off, heading for the Melbourne Zoo.
The zoo was beautiful, green everywhere, the sounds of birds in the air and full of happy families, though not as crowded as American zoos. They'd walked in and Sydney, Vaughn and Irina had been playing happy families, quite happily, for the last two hours, it was nearing one thirty and Jack was dawdling behind, looking at his watch, waiting for the day to be over, but dreading the fact that shopping was next.
The pace was leisurely and Vaughn and Sydney had once again joined hands, Sydney dragging Vaughn off, much to his glee, to look at this or that, relishing the feel of being able to be seen in public with him. They were in the area of the park dedicated to Africa, they'd passed zebras and giraffes and were on to what could only be described as a cross between a hippo and an anteater. One was moving around, the other two remained asleep, the drowsy pair pressed against each other in the shade. Sydney ooed and arred accordingly as a group of Japanese tourists passed them, but soon stopped the façade and just looked at the animals. Vaughn squeezed her hand and smiled at her, leaning against the railing and said, "This is fun."
He was the first to admit it and Jack shot him a glare from where he'd taken a seat on the bench provided, Irina leaned to the edge, able to appreciate the animals and keep an eye on the actions of the other three people at the same time. She said nothing but waited for Sydney to respond, she hesitated at first, "Yeah, this is one of the better missions."
Jack sighed, exaggerating it to break the moment and Irina was at his side in a moment as they moved on, emerging near the back gate which lead off to big cats, lions and reptiles, lush grass surrounded them and for a moment it was real, for all four; they really were a happy family. But then it was gone and Jack took out the map and made a show of not enjoying doing so. He moved off down the path towards the lions, Irina glancing at Sydney who just shrugged to say she could do nothing to fix his attitude.
The lion's cage was huge, a walkway, narrow and shaped like a hexagon, the glass sides moving away from the walkway at an angle of around 135 and back around to meet above their heads. They walks, Irina by herself behind Jack and Sydney and Vaughn behind her, hands still together. The lions were moving around below, letting loose roars every now and then and playfully running after each other. There were few people up there with them, only a couple who disappeared as they entered and a family down the other end. Still, Sydney took no chances, "They look so large."
Stupid comment, nothing she would ever really say, and there was little chance she would be scared of a lion, not really, nonetheless a rich girl probably would. Vaughn saw a chance and took it, perhaps, taking slight advantage of the situation. "You scared of them?"
Irina heard Jack emit what could only be called a growl but ignored him, watching with interest out of the corner of her eye. Sydney played along, "Yes, terrified." Her words were lower, quieter and could never have been heard by anyone but people close by, they weren't for the benefit of the family, they were fir him and Vaughn knew it.
He grinned, slipping his hand from hers and moving to stand behind her, letting his hands rest on her hips. Even this close he could feel himself sweating, his fingers brushed over her stomach, fining it perfectly taunt, "Really?" Sydney couldn't answer, her throat constricted at him being so close, yet again, so she just nodded and then she was being pushed forward, her feet at the edge of the concrete walkway, her body moving over the glass in something like what happened in Titanic but all the more frightening, had she not been a double agent, she would have screamed.
Her eyes slid to where the family should have been and found them gone. She smiled, feeling Vaughn's hands gripping her around the waist; she turned around, standing back up, still with Vaughn's hands on her waist. She smiled at him and heard him whisper, "Sydney," in the way he always wanted to whisper her name, in the way that said he was about to say something important.
Less than ten meters away, Jack was glaring, shooting figurative knives from his mind at Vaughn who had no idea he was there. He could hear them and was ready to go and break it up, he was not only breaking protocol, and he was also saying her name which could jeopardize the mission. He took a step forward but didn't move another inch, feeling an arm snaking around his own waist.
Well, long, loooooonnnnnnnnng chapter, speeding it up a bit too, hope this one is better, say nice things and you will get more, promise.
The day was fun, no one was prepared to admit that to everyone one else, but Sydney told Vaughn she'd had fun, and Vaughn told her he had too, not that he was sure how he'd managed to have fun, but he knew he had. Irina told Sydney she'd had fun and Jack told himself over and over, trying to work out why and how to stop. About ten minutes after sitting down on the bed and beginning to mentally chastise himself for it, he realized he was getting mad at himself for having fun and quickly stopped, seeing the stupidity.
Breakfast had been difficult, the waiter lingering at the door as they made their way off, having eaten full meals and shared cold stares. He seemed to think Irina had something to say to him and when she turned and waved graciously and with a tinge of flirtatiousness, he was only encouraged into winking and standing at the door as the four of them made their way down the promenade. Vaughn on the outside next to Sydney who walked beside her father with Irina next to the river.
The waiter had tracked down one of the Crown Casino's many concierges and she'd made herself welcome to join them as they finished off their coffees, pulling up a chair and pulling out a clipboard and pen from a bag beside her. "Mr and Mrs Pearson, Mr and Mrs Sims," Sydney beamed at the woman and earned herself a grin in return. "I'm told you're looking for some help."
The woman, Emily, was short and a little pudgy, she had her own beauty and was probably about Irina's age, perhaps a little younger. She had long black hair, much like Sydney's and Irina's at the time and blue eyes, her face was covered in freckles and her persona oozed confidence and cheer. Sydney took an immediate liking to her and led much of the conversation, her mother chipping in here and there with locations.
At the end of it all, Jack was sitting back, looked mad, Vaughn just a little scared and Sydney and Irina were grinned as though they had just shared a dirty little joke. Of course this was not the case, what they had done, was organized the day. It was, Vaughn was sure, the busiest day he'd ever heard of, personally he'd been thinking of spending the entire day at the pool with Sydney, but that was doubtful considering even they kept to schedule, they wouldn't be back until after nine. They were to head to the zoo for three or four hours, doing whatever they wanted and to find lunch if they wished, that would take them up to around two pm when they were expected to head for the central business district, the shops. Emily had made reservations at the fifteen top shops at the Paris end where the women would try on endless amounts of clothes and hopefully find something to buy.
This was the bit Vaughn had not been looking for. After that they were to move further along Collins Street, away from the shops, sadly, and to Melbourne's tallest building, the Rialto where they would go up and eat dinner on the top floor, they'd return to Crown in time for the light's show that occurred every night at eight and then they had allocated themselves free time until the next morning.
They'd headed off, taking the rental, straight away, Jack driving as Irina started writing down account details, even time they came to a set of lights, he'd let his eyes scan over to where her hand continued to scrawl out numbers, dates, places and names, her had to ask, "You're obviously making all of these numbers up." It was exasperating that she be so obvious to him.
She'd snapped her head up, the pair in the back, stopping from their discussion of their favourite animals and turning towards the front to listen. Irina answered with caution, shocked considering the numbers were in fact true. "What do you mean?"
"Well look, you're writing them down without even having to think. A hundred and eight accounts, that's thousands of numbers." The light turned green and he went back to concentrating on the road, moving slowly through the mid city traffic.
She looked at him for a second, "I have a good memory." Sydney's eyes narrowed in the back seat, sensing there was more to what her mother was saying.
Jack beat her to questioning her words, "You have a good memory? No one has that good a memory."
Irina cut through him with her words, causing him to swerve around a red van and speed up, "Obviously I do."
Jack glared, there was no way he was going to be able to win this, so he just pushed for more information, "Why?"
"Because it was my job." He shook his heads.
"They're fake numbers," she raised an eyebrow," You're good with numbers then?" She just glared at him, appearing bored, "Prove it."
"Stop acting like a child," she told him, aware they were being surveyed from behind, "And slow down. We do not need to be arrested." He didn't respond but the car did drop back into the flow of the other vehicles, "Jack, I don't need to prove it, just ring through Kendall."
He shook his head, "And what if this is all just to get me in trouble?"
Irina was suddenly aware at how this must have looked as she stopped glaring, "I'm just good with numbers, dates, names, quiz me, if you think I should know it, I will."
Now it was Jack's turn to find himself in hot water, what was he going to ask, immediately, intimate questions he was not going to bring up appeared in his mind and once in they wouldn't leave, he was tempted to ask one, just to be right. But he wouldn't and her voice soon reappeared, silky and teasing, "What's the matter? Nothing to ask? You trust me?"
It wasn't really something mean to say, of course, it was attacking him and he reacted in just the way he was required, shocking Sydney and Vaughn with a question, "What day were we married?" He immediately felt like hitting himself over the head, a feeling she commonly aroused.
She, on the other hand, was just staring at him, as though it was an insult and it was in a way, "It was a Tuesday, because you didn't want anyone to be there."
"Date," he hated himself for asking, but he wanted to see her mess up, typically, these were very easy questions and Sydney almost felt sorry for him as he was obviously floundering.
"Twenty third." It was quite and emotionless, not even teasing but she quickly continued, her voice building with something akin to spite, "It rained, started raining at around three and you carted all the guests into the house, of course, the priest wouldn't fit so you told them all to leave. I remember it ended up just being me, you and your parents, along with the priest. In the living room, the couch was green."
He went to interrupt, to make her stop, winning no longer important, but she raised her voice another notch and he was forced to drive and listen, "We got married and your parents left, you went to cook dinner, a rare occasion, but our flight didn't leave until the next morning. The meal," she shot an accusing look at him as he struggled not to run off the road, the details of that particular night coming back to him with a vengeance, "Was, if I'm not mistaken, left on the stove until the following morning."
Vaughn and Sydney both had a fair idea of why and, while Sydney understood this was not something a daughter wanted to hear from her parents, they were both, nonetheless, intrigued. But Irina stopped, "Shall I go on?"
Jack shook his head and pulled over, spying a bank where Irina could grab her money, hopefully, they wouldn't mind her taking so much out, the concierge had called ahead to make sure and the bank had promised to be able to give them ten thousand in cash, the rest was being put into the check account.
Irina went in along with Vaughn while Jack stayed in the car, pulling out his phone and calling Kendall, it was just going eleven in Australia so Kendall picked up, on the other side of the world, at six pm the day before. "Kendall."
Jack spoke quickly, "I have Intel on Derevko's accounts." His voice was level and professional.
"What?"
"I have the numbers on one hundred and eight, I need you to check one to make sure then I'll fax the numbers through."
Kendall was sounding a little stunned, "How much money are we talking about?"
Jack did the quick calculation, realized just how much cash he was dealing with, "Anywhere between nine and eighteen million sir. Here are the numbers," Jack rattled off the numbers, quickly, listening carefully as he heard the keyboard through the phone.
Kendall's voice came back through shocked, "That's her picture, and there's almost half a million in this account alone."
Jack was silently shocked as well, she hadn't lied except for the fact that there was more money in this one than she'd said, "Yes sir, bye." He hung up as Irina walked out the back, Vaughn trailing behind her, they climbed into the car and he asked, "Everything fine?"
Vaughn answered, "Yes, everything is as she said."
Irina just rolled her eyes as they drove off, heading for the Melbourne Zoo.
The zoo was beautiful, green everywhere, the sounds of birds in the air and full of happy families, though not as crowded as American zoos. They'd walked in and Sydney, Vaughn and Irina had been playing happy families, quite happily, for the last two hours, it was nearing one thirty and Jack was dawdling behind, looking at his watch, waiting for the day to be over, but dreading the fact that shopping was next.
The pace was leisurely and Vaughn and Sydney had once again joined hands, Sydney dragging Vaughn off, much to his glee, to look at this or that, relishing the feel of being able to be seen in public with him. They were in the area of the park dedicated to Africa, they'd passed zebras and giraffes and were on to what could only be described as a cross between a hippo and an anteater. One was moving around, the other two remained asleep, the drowsy pair pressed against each other in the shade. Sydney ooed and arred accordingly as a group of Japanese tourists passed them, but soon stopped the façade and just looked at the animals. Vaughn squeezed her hand and smiled at her, leaning against the railing and said, "This is fun."
He was the first to admit it and Jack shot him a glare from where he'd taken a seat on the bench provided, Irina leaned to the edge, able to appreciate the animals and keep an eye on the actions of the other three people at the same time. She said nothing but waited for Sydney to respond, she hesitated at first, "Yeah, this is one of the better missions."
Jack sighed, exaggerating it to break the moment and Irina was at his side in a moment as they moved on, emerging near the back gate which lead off to big cats, lions and reptiles, lush grass surrounded them and for a moment it was real, for all four; they really were a happy family. But then it was gone and Jack took out the map and made a show of not enjoying doing so. He moved off down the path towards the lions, Irina glancing at Sydney who just shrugged to say she could do nothing to fix his attitude.
The lion's cage was huge, a walkway, narrow and shaped like a hexagon, the glass sides moving away from the walkway at an angle of around 135 and back around to meet above their heads. They walks, Irina by herself behind Jack and Sydney and Vaughn behind her, hands still together. The lions were moving around below, letting loose roars every now and then and playfully running after each other. There were few people up there with them, only a couple who disappeared as they entered and a family down the other end. Still, Sydney took no chances, "They look so large."
Stupid comment, nothing she would ever really say, and there was little chance she would be scared of a lion, not really, nonetheless a rich girl probably would. Vaughn saw a chance and took it, perhaps, taking slight advantage of the situation. "You scared of them?"
Irina heard Jack emit what could only be called a growl but ignored him, watching with interest out of the corner of her eye. Sydney played along, "Yes, terrified." Her words were lower, quieter and could never have been heard by anyone but people close by, they weren't for the benefit of the family, they were fir him and Vaughn knew it.
He grinned, slipping his hand from hers and moving to stand behind her, letting his hands rest on her hips. Even this close he could feel himself sweating, his fingers brushed over her stomach, fining it perfectly taunt, "Really?" Sydney couldn't answer, her throat constricted at him being so close, yet again, so she just nodded and then she was being pushed forward, her feet at the edge of the concrete walkway, her body moving over the glass in something like what happened in Titanic but all the more frightening, had she not been a double agent, she would have screamed.
Her eyes slid to where the family should have been and found them gone. She smiled, feeling Vaughn's hands gripping her around the waist; she turned around, standing back up, still with Vaughn's hands on her waist. She smiled at him and heard him whisper, "Sydney," in the way he always wanted to whisper her name, in the way that said he was about to say something important.
Less than ten meters away, Jack was glaring, shooting figurative knives from his mind at Vaughn who had no idea he was there. He could hear them and was ready to go and break it up, he was not only breaking protocol, and he was also saying her name which could jeopardize the mission. He took a step forward but didn't move another inch, feeling an arm snaking around his own waist.
Well, long, loooooonnnnnnnnng chapter, speeding it up a bit too, hope this one is better, say nice things and you will get more, promise.