Disclaimer: I don't own Alias or it's characters.
AN: Here's another update, the first half is really just to let you guys now what's been going on, but I left a nice little cliffhanger at the end. I hope you guys like it and let me know what you think....
Chapter 8
It had been three weeks since Vaughn had learned that Sydney was alive. Since then he and Sydney had kept in contact detailing operations and plans. Vaughn had set up a surveillance system in Lauren's apartment one night when she had left on business. Meanwhile Sydney had contracted three free-lancers to watch her every move. Every three days they would report back to Sydney or Vaughn what Lauren had been up to. Vaughn would watch the surveillance in the warehouse where he and Sydney used to meet. Kendell who still knew nothing about Vaughn's involvement would contact Sydney with counter-missions and things of that nature. In the past three weeks the CIA had learned more about the Covenant then they had in one years worth of surveillance combined.
Thinking about the past three weeks Vaughn walked around the mall never entering a store. He looked at his watch and walked towards a payphone where he began to dial a number he had memorized before Sydney left. The phone rang once and a woman in Rome answered.
"Is it safe?" Vaughn asked.
"Yes, did you make sure you weren't followed?" Sydney responded on the other end.
"Yes, I'm clean." Vaughn responded.
"The Covenant wants to find something called the Rambaldi cube. They have a location but they need twelve keys to open it. Bohary had the map to one of the keys, the Covenant has a total of eight keys in the possession. A free-lancer named Simon Walker will search for the remaining four keys, with my help." Sydney explained.
"Wait, did you just say Walker?" Vaughn asked with worry.
"Yes, have you heard of him?" Sydney asked.
"Yes, the week before I quit the CIA I saw agents looking through his profile. The CIA was trying to capture him, I read that profile. Syd, the man is dangerous. He has no loyalties, all he cares about is the money. He's dangerous Syd, and he doesn't trust anyone. Before working with someone he tests them, half the people he's supposed to work with die or go to jail before they even get to do the job they were supposed to do. You have to be really careful with this guy. He's suspicious of everyone and if he thinks you're up to something you might as well be dead. You can't take any chances with him." Vaughn told Sydney.
"Vaughn, don't worry about it. I can take care of myself. If it makes you feel better, I'll be extra careful when I work with him." Sydney reassured him.
"Thank you." Vaughn said feeling a bit more relieved.
"I talked to the freelancers that are on Lauren, they reported seeing her contact one of her handler several times this past week. Something's going on, last week she only saw him once, this week she met with him three times and contacted him on the phone twice. I have an id on her handler his name is Zisman. He's not only her handler but he is the middleman of all operations concerning high-ranking covenant agents. Apparently only few agents can talk to the top players of the covenant, Zisman is one of them." Sydney explained.
"What do you think is going on?" Vaughn asked.
"I don't know that's why I needed to talk to you. One of the freelancers reported seeing Zisman give Lauren a briefcase, it's a black leather briefcase. She took that briefcase home and none of the freelancers reported seeing the briefcase again. It has to be in her apartment. I need you to look for it as soon as possible. I have a feeling something is going down, something big and I think she might be a part of it." Sydney told Vaughn.
"It doesn't make much sense, I doubt that she is high-ranking agent in the Covenant, she's not doing anything except keeping tabs on me." Vaughn said.
"Maybe it's more than that, maybe we're missing something. I have to go, but as soon as you have news contact me." Sydney said.
"I love you." Vaughn said.
"I love you too... be careful." She said hanging up the phone.
Vaughn went back to the warehouse where the surveillance was set up. He watched in the monitors as Lauren picked up a book and sat down to read.
"Come on, do something." He thought to himself. Lauren's phone began to ring and she put her book down and picked up the phone. Vaughn put on his headphones to hear what she was saying.
"Hello." She answered.
"When?" she asked after a moment.
"Yes, I'm clear on the operation." She said hanging up. She walked to her room and Vaughn watched as her image moved from one monitor to the next. When she got to her room she opened the closet door and pulled out a black leather briefcase. She opened the briefcase and took out three files and began to look through them. After ten minutes she put the files back and left the apartment. Vaughn saw the opportunity to see what was on those files and decided to head towards her apartment.
He drove as quickly as possible. Lauren's apartment was almost twenty minutes away. He picked up his cell phone and called Lauren's cell.
"Hello love." She answered.
"Hey, what are you up to?" Vaughn asked.
"I'm driving to the office as we speak." She said.
"I just called to see if you wanted to go out for dinner later tonight. What time will you be back?" he asked.
"I'm sorry Michael, I can't do dinner tonight. I have a lot of work to do and I think I won't be back until very late. How about we do it tomorrow night?" she asked sounding disappointed that they couldn't see each other tonight.
"Don't worry about it Lauren, we'll do something tomorrow night then." Vaughn said.
"I have to go love, I'll talk to you soon." She said.
"Bye." He said hanging up the phone. Vaughn now had confirmation that she wouldn't be back anytime soon, leaving him with time to spare to go into her apartment and make copies of the files she had. Vaughn parked a block away from Lauren's apartment. He walked to the familiar building and went into the building using the spare key he had made using one of Marshall's old gadgets. Of course Lauren had no idea that Vaughn had that spare key but it came in handy to him when he needed to break into her house without her noticing it. He walked into the small apartment carrying a small bag with him and headed towards her bedroom. He searched for the briefcase and found it immediately. He opened it and took out the files inside, there were six files, but he had clearly seen Lauren look through only three of them. He picked up the files and looked through them, one by one he realized what he was looking at.
The files weren't any ordinary files, they were orders to kill. He looked through them in shock realizing that Lauren was about to kill people he knew, people he cared about, people who he would give his life for. He opened the bag and took out a camera. He took pictures of each page in those files. His hands shook with anger and fear, fear that he might be too late to save the lives of his friends, his close friends. As he put the files back into the briefcase he realized that he was being watched. He turned around surprised to see Lauren standing at the entrance of the door watching him.
"Michael." she finally said.
