"Who are you calling?" Sydney demanded.
Sloane ignored her.
"Hola, Ricardo," he said cheerfully. "Ponga por favor el Agente Vaughn en el teléfono." ("Hello, Ricardo. Please put Agent Vaughn on the phone.")
If anything, Sydney's eyes opened wider, this time with horror.
"Here," Sloane said simply, stepping closer and holding the phone against her ear.
Both Vaughn and Caplan tensed when the guard stepped forward.
"What?" Vaughn asked, his tone deliberately calm. "What is it?"
The guard responded by pressing his phone to Vaughn's ear, tightening his grip on his gun with his other hand in unspoken warning as he did so.
Well. Here goes nothing. For a horrible moment, he wondered if they'd brought his mother into this. If they scare my maman, any revenge Sydney could possibly think of wouldn't come close to my ideas.
"Hello? Bonjour?"
The relief that swelled through Sydney was utterly ridiculous for its quantity. "Vaughn!"
"Syd?" The connection crackled for a moment. "Where are you?"
Sloane shook his head at her. "In a room with the worst company imaginable," Sydney replied carefully. Why don't they want Vaughn to know we're in Spain? What's the point? She paused.
"Are you okay?" she asked nervously, knowing she was giving Sloane and Sark even more ammunition against them both, but genuinely not caring. "How's the head?"
"I'm fine, Syd. So is Caplan," he replied briefly, his tone guarded. Someone's pointing a gun at him, Sydney realized, and then felt like an idiot for doing so. Of course someone is, Sydney!
"Vaughn-"
"That'll be all," Sloane cut her off, moving the phone away. Sydney lay back against the pillows, still relieved to have heard Vaughn's voice, even as Sloane continued to make clear who had control at the moment.
"¿Cómo son las cosas?" Sloane inquired. "¿Nuestras huéspedes se están comportando?" ("How are things? Are our guests behaving themselves?")
"Ich mag sie nicht sprechend," Ricardo answered shortly. ("I don't like them talking.")
The guard was speaking German, not his native Spanish. Young Michael Vaughn had a growing reputation for a brilliance in strategy and deductive reasoning that rivaled Jack Bristow himself, and Sloane planned to throw him off using every available opportunity. Ordering the guard to continue speaking the same language Vaughn had been allowed to hear on the jet would accomplish that with the barest minimum of effort.
"Sé. Pero déjelos, Caplan guarda mientras el trabajar," he replied. "Aprenderemos probablemente más esa manera que si intentamos interrogar al Agente Vaughn." ("I know. But let them, as long as Caplan keeps working. We will probably learn more that way than if we tried to interrogate Agent Vaughn.")
"Ja, sir," Ricardo replied obediently.
"Adiós."
"Auf Wiedersehen," the guard replied.
He hung up, noting as he did so that the glare Sydney was currently directing toward him was every inch as terrifying as her father's. Or her mother's.
"I trust we don't need to vocalize what Mr. Vaughn's situation will be, should you choose to decline our assignment?" Sark asked politely.
In response, she switched her glare's target from Sloane to him.
"Excellent," Sloane said, as Sark met her glare evenly. The former head of SD-6 wore a gentle, proud smile on his face. "I am eager to see your inevitable success."
--
"What?"
"Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction," Weiss informed Will shortly. The younger CIA Agent paced restlessly around while the other three men sat facing each other in Sydney's living room.
"You're going to go rescue them, right?"
"Yes," Jack replied shortly, not going into details.
"Well, uh, thanks for telling me, but why did you? I'm thinkin' you normally would just say they're on a longer mission than usual and leave it at that."
Dixon raised an eyebrow. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised, the kid was an analyst and a former reporter, but still. Will was clearly much smarter than people gave him credit for.
"Normally, we would, yes," Jack said quietly. "But we need your talents for something."
"What?"
"The CIA is here," Allison told Sark quietly. "They're recruiting Tippin for their rescue effort."
"That's excellent news," Sark replied approvingly. "That means your source is still good."
"I know," she said, though she glowed at his praise.
"I'm assuming this is still a rogue operation? I highly doubt they would normally hold such a sensitive meeting outside their facility."
"I'll confirm with Tippin tonight, but it looks to be."
"Excellent. Agent Vaughn only has himself to blame, really."
"Yes," she replied. "I'm going to go play Francie now."
"Have fun, love," he replied. The connection died.
"We need all the information you can gather on Vladimir Pograski," Jack said to Will as he jotted down notes.
"Okay," Will said, the corner of his tongue sticking out absently as he wrote. "Who is he?"
Jack ignored him. He'll find out soon enough. "We also need to know his current location, the people he's met with in the past six months, and if anything was exchanged at those meetings."
"Gotcha."
"Hey, everyone."
They turned. Sydney's final civilian friend, Francie, stood in the doorway of the room, eyeing them all curiously. "What's up, guys?"
"Hey, Fran," Will said, his tone too bright. Dixon nudged him. Calm down, kid.
"Good afternoon," Jack said to her smoothly. "You've met Marcus, I think. This is Eric Weiss."
"Hey," Weiss said, stepping forward to shake her hand. "I'm a friend of Syd's and Mike's from the bank."
Will watched, fascinated at the ease with which all three men lied.
"Explains the suit," Francie teased. "Do you hate it as much as Sydney?"
"I don't think anyone that works there likes it," Weiss returned honestly. "Unless, you know, they're insane."
She laughed. "Well, I won't interrupt. Can I get you guys something to drink?"
Please forgive any language errors!
That was Jinnie's attempt at three!
(Count 'em: French, Spanish and German)
Review Responses
Ilovemypenguin: That site is truly a God-send.
Kay10197: LOL, I'm working on Chapter 32 right now. ;)
Wannabannana: Don't worry, there's more where that came from!
K4e: Me? Tease? Never!
Kittyfantastico: Is too fair!
Reverie: Why hello! Nice to see ya again! LOL. Presages is also on SD-1. ;)
Nattie70: (I swear to God a zero is missing!) Hmmm… are you leaving a review or writing a blog? ;) LOL. I played clarinet (and bass) all through middle and high school!
MJ::buries head in shame: Yeah, two betas and yours truly missed that. Oops! But wait! Not my fault you can't read my mind! ;) Hmm. Cliffé? I'm gonna go with French. It has an accent. ;) lol
Linda: Good actress you're not. ;) I guess I love ya anyway. ;)
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