72 hours earlier

Los Angeles.

Sydney was sitting in her favourite chair in the lounge; Francie was drinking coffee on the two-seater.

"Syd…do you wanna grab a pizza later?" Francie asked. Sydney looked up from the glossy magazine she was reading.

"France, I'd love to but -"

"You have work? I should have guessed. You need to give that job up! You're too young to be working all the time!" Sydney knew her friend meant well, but she still got frustrated that she couldn't tell her about her secret life. Maybe then Francie would understand.

The familiar tone of the phone played and Syd rushed over to get it. Francie looked up again and looked at he best friend questioningly.

"I'm waiting for an important work call" Syd replied and shrugged. She picked up the phone.

"Joey's pizza?" Inside Syd cringed, all she wanted to do was relax with her best mates and forget about her spy life.

"Wrong number" she replied. This was the sign she had been dreading. "Francie, I'm gonna go for a jog before I have work. You think Will can come keep you company?"

"Yeah, I will give him a call later. Be careful sweety." Syd hugged her and went to her room to change. She grabbed her keys and said goodbye.

She ran her normal route, through the park and under the tunnel just passed the phone. It was an old habit to go that way, now SD-6 had been eliminated it was safe for her to go in the front door, just like the "Joey's pizza" call, it was a familiarity that was comforting. She had her clearance so she was allowed in.

"Agent Bristow? This way please." A sharply dressed man ushered her to the debriefing room. She hurried to her seat and apologized to Kendall and her father. She was seated next to Vaughn. They briefly squeezed hands in greeting. A lot had happened to them, Syd thought. Finally, Vaughn had kissed me; she shivered in delight as she thought back to that day. It had been the best and worst day of her life.

Thanks to that day, she could stop being a double agent, she could be slightly less wary. But she had lost her friendship with Dixon and was still trying to rebuild it to how it was, seeing how he wouldn't talk to her now was proving a little obstacle.

"As you should all know Sark has traced another Rambaldi artefact to London, England. We have this Intel thanks to our invaluable agent inside Sark's inner circle. So, Syd, you and Vaughn will be posing as young artists with an interest in historic paintings. Weiss you will be on point. Go to Marshall for the Op Tech. Any questions?" Dixon informed us.
"Just one: If we only just got this Intel, won't Sark have already got the painting?" Sydney questioned.
"That is a good point; he would have gone in straight away." Vaughn agreed.

"Well, our source said that Mr Sark is waiting for the art exhibition in two days time. So we will go in that morning. Your plane leaves in two hours."