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Chapter Thirty Four
Kendall was shocked to say the least when he got the call. Never before had Sydney needed to call him when on a covert mission such as this and it worried him immediately. He wasted no time in getting out of the meeting he had been sleeping through and racing, quite fast considering it was him, to the phone. Picking it up he listened carefully before telling her to stay put as he raced off to his own superiors for the required information.
His first through had been that Irina had betrayed them all and taken Jack with her, either as a trophy or because he was going to come in handy. But something in Sydney's voice made sure that Kendall understood that that wasn't it. Irina and Jack had been captured, no one knew how and no on knew whom by and no one knew why. The plan, if you could call it that was to pull as many Australian recourses, every person that the CIA had ties to and get the underground network up and running. There wasn't a chance in hell of Jack and Irina being rescued is they didn't know where they were and that was their primary objective for the moment.
Sydney, being Sydney, refused to go back to the hotel room and wait and was hell-bent on racing off in search so Kendall quickly handed her a few names of men that might or might not have ended up being helpful. He hoped that Jack and Irina would just let themselves escape because they truly had no leads. Vaughn was soon on the line as well, questioning informing ASIO, Australia's intelligence but was soon against it when Kendall brought up recent cases involving them and the sloppiness that would ensue with two agencies on the case.
Hanging up and swerving onto the freeway, Sydney griped the steering wheel tighter, her mind flicking back over everything that had happened. Vaughn watched her tentatively as she stared straight ahead at the road. "Syd," he asked. "Are you okay?"
She swallowed blatantly but didn't flinch, "No."
"I'm sure that they'll be fine," he began, "They can look after themselves, I mean they've probably already started to plan their break out." The waver of uncertainty was obvious in his voice.
"Yeah," Sydney conceded, more for herself than anything else, "But what if they're not." She glanced at him as she overtook a Holden. "You realize that if we don't find them that she'll be blamed."
Vaughn nodded half-heartedly, lifting a hand to stroke her cheek in assurance. "We just need to be careful, there's no use in us getting captured too is there?"
She shook her head a ghost of a smile gracing her lips. Together that sat in silence until they got back to the hotel upon which they walked through the front door and straight up to the front desk. Smiling serenely and as though nothing was wrong, Sydney recited her alias to the receptionist who promptly handed over the unmarked yellow package that both Sydney and Vaughn knew would contain enough background information on the three men they planned on visiting to last them a week but would need to be read in a matter of hours.
Sydney only wished that the elevator would speed up and when the doors began to slide open she slipped her hand from Vaughn's and raced to their door.
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Sitting across from each other, Irina was shocked to find herself almost enjoying this time alone with Jack. They weren't taking freely exactly and they weren't allowed to talk out loud but both were in their element and were slowly piecing together the puzzle. Jack was shocked at his wife's abilities which he had always accepted were incredible but he never expected to appreciate them so much nor to enjoy watched her eyes flicker and her thumb rub over her bottom lip as she thought and blinked.
-You don't remember anything?- Jack questioned in reference to her way in.
-Nothing specific. I woke up inside the cell and when they brought me here they had me blindfolded.-
He grinned before quickly wiping the look from his face, -and?- he pushed, knowing she would have gathered a heap of information despite her blind state.
-And,- she continued, smiling, -It was a short walk, outside, through light leaves perhaps, maybe eighty meters. Outside this room I would have to say there was an exposed place.- Jack's brow creased in the slightest. They were, according Irina in whom he held no doubt, in a single roomed building. Outside he had no idea and so he waited for her to give him more information. -My senses were heightened thanks to the blindfold. I could hear nothing but the two men who brought me, wind a little, bird calls.- She paused, her thumb rubbing at her chin and her eyes fazing out, -I'd say we'd have to be in the middle of the bush.- She shrugged and watched him for a response.
Predictably, he chose to summarize their findings. -So we're stuck in a cell and through that door,- he motioned with his eyes all the while blinking out the message, -Is pure bush land along with at least one other cell.- She grinned nodding. -And how many men?-
-Two brought me over, I'd say by the smell that the guard apparently guarding us is one of them, so I count three.-
-Only three?-
-Yep.- She paused glancing at the oblivious guard who stood, blond and looking like he had drunk a little too much as he stared at the ceiling quietly counting the scratch marks. -This Cameron, I've never heard of him.-
-Me either.-
-He's good at what he does though-
-How can you tell?- Jack asked, repositioning himself as his back began to ache once again.
-He's done with us exactly what I would have done- Seeing his raised eyebrow she elaborated, -If you hadn't noticed he's got our names and the fact that we're CIA and is yet to lay a finger on us physically.-
Jack nodded, -But you're not CIA.-
-No, I'm not,- she answered, feeling the conversation slowing down as both started to think over the possibilities. Of course this didn't mean they could drop the other's gaze and so contentedly settled down to drown in the eyes across the room...all in the line of duty, of course. Irina could sense or see, she didn't quite know which, the rush in Jack's eyes, the way every few seconds he would blink, his brow creased low and again she felt like she was staring right through him. Shockingly enough, at this stage in their bungled mission, it had to be a plus.
-Have we got a plan?- Jack suddenly asked, eyes flicking to the dim witted guard as he blinked.
-I don't know...Do we?- Irina replied letting her eyes follow his to find the being supposedly keeping them prisoner standing up against the wall picking his nose.
A pause in the conversation and Irina knew that Jack was thinking along the same lines as she was. -You or me?- he questioned.
-Me- she replied, eager for some reason to once again prove her worth or perhaps just to see what his reaction would be. Standing and arching her back as she moaned, half to grab the guard's attention and half because she wanted to see the flicker in Jack's eyes that was oh so definitely still there. Chastising herself for not treating her actions seriously she tried to go with her plan and ignore Jack but of course could not.
"Excuse me," she said, her voice timid and slightly raspy. The guard jumped, wheeling around to face her. She grinned, head dropped and immediately felt him relax. Approaching the bars that split the room in two, she grasped them between her fingers and leant up against them, "I really need to go."
A bemused look overcame him, "Go?" he looked around not noticing Jack's cocked head as he observed the scene playing out before him. "Go where?"
She grinned again, ducking her head, "Lady's room," she whispered.
"Oh," he smiled goofily, "Cool". And then proceeded to turn back around and replace his finger in his nose.
"Would you mind opening the gate?" she asked, slightly miffed at him falling for her story and then not even understanding the role he was supposed to play.
He turned back, "Oh, yeah, of course." He proceeded to unlock the metal gate, fumbling with the keys for a moment, giving Irina plenty of time to count the six individual keys, two of which she knew belonged to a car.
"Thank you," Irina waited until he was holding the gate open, fingers entwined and a hand outstretched, just like a true gentleman before kicking him hard between the ribs and whirling around to kick him again in the knees. Feeling almost sorry for the idiot, she was quick to knock him out against the metal before turning, triumphant smile in place to shoo Jack out ahead of her.
"Nice," he complimented. She held up the keys to which he said, acting in a way she could only deem flirtatious in a Jack type of way, "Very nice." He grabbed the key-ring from her grasp, looked over it and handed it back, before silently moving towards the door, on reaching it, he asked, "Did he have a gun?"
Irina shook her head in the negative, "Nope," before sliding an arm past him to the handle, grabbing his eyes with hers and silently counting to three. Yanking the door open far enough that both could see out, their suspicions were confirmed. Surrounding them was an endless shade of dirty green, as they stepped out they found hard ground, tree roots entwined with little shrubs and filtered sunlight hitting the ground. "Bush," Irina commented offhandedly as she looked around, searching for the other two known men that still posed them a threat.
"There," Jack pointed towards a red four wheel drive where a Irina's second guard stood, leaning back on the painted body, cigarette to his lips. He went to move forward but Irina silently laid a hand on his arm, forcing him to wait.
"Where's Cameron?" she asked, obviously not sure.
Jack shrugged, again looking around for the culprit but not finding him, "We go now, or we don't." He paused listening to the sharp call of some far off bird, "Your call."
She glanced up, catching his eye and smirked caught up in the game, "We go."
He smiled back, the corner of his mouth twitching up, "We go." And then they ran, simultaneously over the ground, the lack of leaves making their run silent and as they circled around behind the car. Coming up behind him, Irina took the lead again and wrapped a hand around his arm pulling it back as she pushed him with her body into the car. Jack watched on and she covered his mouth expertly with another hand.
"You answer our questions without screaming, we'll let you live." The stiff body mumbled what was surly agreement as the cigarette dropped to the ground. "Good. First question, who are you?" Slowly she lifted her hand but on feeling a quick intake of breath quickly stopped the scream that was rising, "No screaming," she emphasized.
Again she allowed him to speak, "Furgul, I work for Cameron," his accent was definitely French.
"And what work is it you do?"
"I keep an eye with Fergus on the prisoners."
Irina was about to ask her third question when she felt Jack move closer behind her, "He's coming," he whispered in her ear. "Now."
Irina turned to see Cameron, head down as he jumped a wire fence only a hundred meters away; he still hadn't seen them. She turned back to her prisoner, "The keys," he hesitated and ended up with his arm wrenched even higher up his back.
"I don't have them. Cameron leaves the keys with whoever is in the cell. Never out here." Frustrated, Irina glanced at Jack before giving up on their blatantly incompetent captive and hitting him over the head. As he crumpled to the ground, Cameron cleared the fence and glanced up to catch them running into the car, Jack slid fluidly into the drivers seat as Irina wrenched open the passenger door and, climbing in, threw the keys to Jack. Looking over them, Jack tried one, then another to find it fitting snuggly. Turning it in the ignition, the car roared into life...
Reviews please, you've been so good at it up until now so keep it up.
Chapter Thirty Four
Kendall was shocked to say the least when he got the call. Never before had Sydney needed to call him when on a covert mission such as this and it worried him immediately. He wasted no time in getting out of the meeting he had been sleeping through and racing, quite fast considering it was him, to the phone. Picking it up he listened carefully before telling her to stay put as he raced off to his own superiors for the required information.
His first through had been that Irina had betrayed them all and taken Jack with her, either as a trophy or because he was going to come in handy. But something in Sydney's voice made sure that Kendall understood that that wasn't it. Irina and Jack had been captured, no one knew how and no on knew whom by and no one knew why. The plan, if you could call it that was to pull as many Australian recourses, every person that the CIA had ties to and get the underground network up and running. There wasn't a chance in hell of Jack and Irina being rescued is they didn't know where they were and that was their primary objective for the moment.
Sydney, being Sydney, refused to go back to the hotel room and wait and was hell-bent on racing off in search so Kendall quickly handed her a few names of men that might or might not have ended up being helpful. He hoped that Jack and Irina would just let themselves escape because they truly had no leads. Vaughn was soon on the line as well, questioning informing ASIO, Australia's intelligence but was soon against it when Kendall brought up recent cases involving them and the sloppiness that would ensue with two agencies on the case.
Hanging up and swerving onto the freeway, Sydney griped the steering wheel tighter, her mind flicking back over everything that had happened. Vaughn watched her tentatively as she stared straight ahead at the road. "Syd," he asked. "Are you okay?"
She swallowed blatantly but didn't flinch, "No."
"I'm sure that they'll be fine," he began, "They can look after themselves, I mean they've probably already started to plan their break out." The waver of uncertainty was obvious in his voice.
"Yeah," Sydney conceded, more for herself than anything else, "But what if they're not." She glanced at him as she overtook a Holden. "You realize that if we don't find them that she'll be blamed."
Vaughn nodded half-heartedly, lifting a hand to stroke her cheek in assurance. "We just need to be careful, there's no use in us getting captured too is there?"
She shook her head a ghost of a smile gracing her lips. Together that sat in silence until they got back to the hotel upon which they walked through the front door and straight up to the front desk. Smiling serenely and as though nothing was wrong, Sydney recited her alias to the receptionist who promptly handed over the unmarked yellow package that both Sydney and Vaughn knew would contain enough background information on the three men they planned on visiting to last them a week but would need to be read in a matter of hours.
Sydney only wished that the elevator would speed up and when the doors began to slide open she slipped her hand from Vaughn's and raced to their door.
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Sitting across from each other, Irina was shocked to find herself almost enjoying this time alone with Jack. They weren't taking freely exactly and they weren't allowed to talk out loud but both were in their element and were slowly piecing together the puzzle. Jack was shocked at his wife's abilities which he had always accepted were incredible but he never expected to appreciate them so much nor to enjoy watched her eyes flicker and her thumb rub over her bottom lip as she thought and blinked.
-You don't remember anything?- Jack questioned in reference to her way in.
-Nothing specific. I woke up inside the cell and when they brought me here they had me blindfolded.-
He grinned before quickly wiping the look from his face, -and?- he pushed, knowing she would have gathered a heap of information despite her blind state.
-And,- she continued, smiling, -It was a short walk, outside, through light leaves perhaps, maybe eighty meters. Outside this room I would have to say there was an exposed place.- Jack's brow creased in the slightest. They were, according Irina in whom he held no doubt, in a single roomed building. Outside he had no idea and so he waited for her to give him more information. -My senses were heightened thanks to the blindfold. I could hear nothing but the two men who brought me, wind a little, bird calls.- She paused, her thumb rubbing at her chin and her eyes fazing out, -I'd say we'd have to be in the middle of the bush.- She shrugged and watched him for a response.
Predictably, he chose to summarize their findings. -So we're stuck in a cell and through that door,- he motioned with his eyes all the while blinking out the message, -Is pure bush land along with at least one other cell.- She grinned nodding. -And how many men?-
-Two brought me over, I'd say by the smell that the guard apparently guarding us is one of them, so I count three.-
-Only three?-
-Yep.- She paused glancing at the oblivious guard who stood, blond and looking like he had drunk a little too much as he stared at the ceiling quietly counting the scratch marks. -This Cameron, I've never heard of him.-
-Me either.-
-He's good at what he does though-
-How can you tell?- Jack asked, repositioning himself as his back began to ache once again.
-He's done with us exactly what I would have done- Seeing his raised eyebrow she elaborated, -If you hadn't noticed he's got our names and the fact that we're CIA and is yet to lay a finger on us physically.-
Jack nodded, -But you're not CIA.-
-No, I'm not,- she answered, feeling the conversation slowing down as both started to think over the possibilities. Of course this didn't mean they could drop the other's gaze and so contentedly settled down to drown in the eyes across the room...all in the line of duty, of course. Irina could sense or see, she didn't quite know which, the rush in Jack's eyes, the way every few seconds he would blink, his brow creased low and again she felt like she was staring right through him. Shockingly enough, at this stage in their bungled mission, it had to be a plus.
-Have we got a plan?- Jack suddenly asked, eyes flicking to the dim witted guard as he blinked.
-I don't know...Do we?- Irina replied letting her eyes follow his to find the being supposedly keeping them prisoner standing up against the wall picking his nose.
A pause in the conversation and Irina knew that Jack was thinking along the same lines as she was. -You or me?- he questioned.
-Me- she replied, eager for some reason to once again prove her worth or perhaps just to see what his reaction would be. Standing and arching her back as she moaned, half to grab the guard's attention and half because she wanted to see the flicker in Jack's eyes that was oh so definitely still there. Chastising herself for not treating her actions seriously she tried to go with her plan and ignore Jack but of course could not.
"Excuse me," she said, her voice timid and slightly raspy. The guard jumped, wheeling around to face her. She grinned, head dropped and immediately felt him relax. Approaching the bars that split the room in two, she grasped them between her fingers and leant up against them, "I really need to go."
A bemused look overcame him, "Go?" he looked around not noticing Jack's cocked head as he observed the scene playing out before him. "Go where?"
She grinned again, ducking her head, "Lady's room," she whispered.
"Oh," he smiled goofily, "Cool". And then proceeded to turn back around and replace his finger in his nose.
"Would you mind opening the gate?" she asked, slightly miffed at him falling for her story and then not even understanding the role he was supposed to play.
He turned back, "Oh, yeah, of course." He proceeded to unlock the metal gate, fumbling with the keys for a moment, giving Irina plenty of time to count the six individual keys, two of which she knew belonged to a car.
"Thank you," Irina waited until he was holding the gate open, fingers entwined and a hand outstretched, just like a true gentleman before kicking him hard between the ribs and whirling around to kick him again in the knees. Feeling almost sorry for the idiot, she was quick to knock him out against the metal before turning, triumphant smile in place to shoo Jack out ahead of her.
"Nice," he complimented. She held up the keys to which he said, acting in a way she could only deem flirtatious in a Jack type of way, "Very nice." He grabbed the key-ring from her grasp, looked over it and handed it back, before silently moving towards the door, on reaching it, he asked, "Did he have a gun?"
Irina shook her head in the negative, "Nope," before sliding an arm past him to the handle, grabbing his eyes with hers and silently counting to three. Yanking the door open far enough that both could see out, their suspicions were confirmed. Surrounding them was an endless shade of dirty green, as they stepped out they found hard ground, tree roots entwined with little shrubs and filtered sunlight hitting the ground. "Bush," Irina commented offhandedly as she looked around, searching for the other two known men that still posed them a threat.
"There," Jack pointed towards a red four wheel drive where a Irina's second guard stood, leaning back on the painted body, cigarette to his lips. He went to move forward but Irina silently laid a hand on his arm, forcing him to wait.
"Where's Cameron?" she asked, obviously not sure.
Jack shrugged, again looking around for the culprit but not finding him, "We go now, or we don't." He paused listening to the sharp call of some far off bird, "Your call."
She glanced up, catching his eye and smirked caught up in the game, "We go."
He smiled back, the corner of his mouth twitching up, "We go." And then they ran, simultaneously over the ground, the lack of leaves making their run silent and as they circled around behind the car. Coming up behind him, Irina took the lead again and wrapped a hand around his arm pulling it back as she pushed him with her body into the car. Jack watched on and she covered his mouth expertly with another hand.
"You answer our questions without screaming, we'll let you live." The stiff body mumbled what was surly agreement as the cigarette dropped to the ground. "Good. First question, who are you?" Slowly she lifted her hand but on feeling a quick intake of breath quickly stopped the scream that was rising, "No screaming," she emphasized.
Again she allowed him to speak, "Furgul, I work for Cameron," his accent was definitely French.
"And what work is it you do?"
"I keep an eye with Fergus on the prisoners."
Irina was about to ask her third question when she felt Jack move closer behind her, "He's coming," he whispered in her ear. "Now."
Irina turned to see Cameron, head down as he jumped a wire fence only a hundred meters away; he still hadn't seen them. She turned back to her prisoner, "The keys," he hesitated and ended up with his arm wrenched even higher up his back.
"I don't have them. Cameron leaves the keys with whoever is in the cell. Never out here." Frustrated, Irina glanced at Jack before giving up on their blatantly incompetent captive and hitting him over the head. As he crumpled to the ground, Cameron cleared the fence and glanced up to catch them running into the car, Jack slid fluidly into the drivers seat as Irina wrenched open the passenger door and, climbing in, threw the keys to Jack. Looking over them, Jack tried one, then another to find it fitting snuggly. Turning it in the ignition, the car roared into life...
Reviews please, you've been so good at it up until now so keep it up.