Magnificent Lies
Secrets
Vaughn stepped through the front doors of Credit Dauphine the following morning and immediately felt a new closeness with Sydney. This is what she had to do every day. Walk into SD-6 and pretend not to know a thing about it's true aims.
Finally he spotted Jack in the corner of the lobby, who nodded towards the elevator. Vaughn waited a minute before following.
As the steel doors closed behind him, Jack spoke.
"You have an interview with Mr. Sloane in fifteen minutes-. Just remember what we went over yesterday and you'll be fine." He pressed the button that would take them to the sublevels of Credit Dauphine, where SD-6 operated.
Within an hour, Sloane was introducing Vaughn to the rest of the team.
"This is Mr. Flinkman, part of our Operational Technology division."
"Its Agent Vaughn- Right? Marshall Flinkman- well you can call me Marshall. Or Flinkman, actually, if you know, thats what you'd prefer."
"It's nice to meet you, Marshall." Vaughn replied, shaking his hand. Sydney was right- You couldn't help but smile.
"You're going to be working with Sydney, right? You'll like her, she's...." Marshall made the thumbs up sign with both hands.
"Marshall." Sloane cut in.
"Oh. Right. Back to the...." Marshall sat back down in his spinny-chair and began typing furiously on the keyboard.
Sloane motioned to Vaughn and led the way down towards the offices. Behind them Vaughn could hear Marshall call out.
"Nice to meet you, Mr. Vaughn!"
They continued down the hall and came through the glass double doors at the end.
Vaughn was taken aback momentarily by what he saw. What seemed like hundreds of desks cluttered the giant room he had entered. He quickly identified the places Sydney had described to him; the debriefing room behind the mechanical glass doors at the far end, Jack's private office that could be seen through the bustle of agents, and Sloane's office, which, from looking at blueprints of the building, Vaughn knew was directly above the 'conversation room,' where countless men and women had been tortured since the formation of the Alliance.
Sloane led him over to a cluster of desks close to his office. Here it was quieter and less busy. Sydney sat at one of them, the other two were empty.
"This will be your desk, Agent Vaughn, you can get settled right away." Sloane said, pointing to the desk directly across from Sydney. "And this is Ms. Bristow, your new partner."
"Sydney." She said, smiling and standing up to shake Vaughn's hand.
"Michael Vaughn. Nice to meet you."
"I'll let you two get acquainted. I'll be in my office if you need anything, Agent Vaughn." Sloane smiled at them both and left.
"I like my desk." Vaughn said with a smile.
"Not much of a view, though." Sydney laughed, looking around at the hectic offices.
That's where you're wrong, Syd, I've got the most beautiful view in the world, Vaughn thought, looking over the low divider at Sydney's glowing face. He put his laptop down on the table and began to set up his desk.
By noon, Vaughn had finished with his desk and completed all the paperwork given to him by Sloane. Leaning back in his chair, he glanced across the table at Sydney, who was detailing a mission for Jack.
"Are you hungry?" She asked, looking up from her computer.
"Starved. Is there a cafeteria here?"
"There is, but I usually go to the deli across the street."
Twenty minutes later, they were eating their sandwiches, sitting across from each other at the deli.
"You're right." Vaughn said, taking another bite of his turkey club sandwich.
"About what?" Sydney asked, taking a sip of the large soda they had bought to split. She couldn't believe it. She was splitting a drink with Vaughn, in public, at her favorite deli.
"About the sandwiches. This has to be the best one I've ever had." Not to mention that it was made a thousand times better by the beautiful, intelligent, brave woman sitting across from him. This was much better than his days spent eating lunch with Weiss in the CIA cafeteria. Not that Weiss was bad company, he just wasn't Sydney.
"And to think, we can come here together every day." Sydney said, looking into Vaughn's sparkling green eyes. She saw something there she hadn't seen before, a light that seemed to brighten the whole room. And she knew that it was the same emotion he was seeing in hers.
Sloane leaned thoughtfully back against his chair, then pressed the button for his secretary.
"Could you page Jack Bristow? I need to see him in my office as soon as possible. Thank you." He put down the receiver and waited. Finally his door opened and Jack walked in.
"I was surprised when I looked over Agent Vaughn's information. When you referred him to me, you failed to mention he was Bill Vaughn's kid."
"It seemed irrelevant at the time." Jack said, his eyes taking on a new, guarded tone.
"Of course it's relevant, Jack. How couldn't it be? Does he know?" Sloane leaned forward on his hands.
"No."
"Don't you think he has a right to know?"
"We're in the wrong business to be concerned with rights, Arvin. The only people who know are me, you, and Irina. I'd prefer to keep it that way."
"It's your decision, Jack."
"This stays between us." Jack said firmly, then turned on his heel and left the room in a huff.
Arvin Sloane smiled. This should make things interesting.
Sorry about the evil cliffy... I'll post the next chapter ASAP, provided I get some encouraging reviews. hint hint