Two Days Before

"So I think it's time." He stated looking up at his best friend with anxiety.

Never had he felt so nervous as he felt now. His mind tried to wrap around the idea and made his stomach uneasy. Everything told him not to make a fool of himself. Not to go through with it. But at the same time, he knew in his heart that it was about time. If he didn't go through with it now, he may loose all the courage to do it at all.

"You're going through with it?" His friend replied with his eyebrow cocked up in amusement. They had been going over the plan for so long that they were both becoming unsure if this was the right time or not. Weiss had been his friend for so long… They went to high school together, went to college together, even survived training at the Farm together. Weiss was the only person he could think of to confide in and he was beginning to question if it was such a great idea telling him at all.

Vaughn took a deep breath and nodded slightly. He pushed away from his desk and opened his drawer to look at it again… Just to check and make sure that it was still okay.

Weiss chuckled. "Okay, you've, like, checked that thirty times already… Yet it's still there Mike."

"What's still there?"

Shutting his drawer quickly, Vaughn straightened up his desk and looked at the feminine figure before him and smiled stiffly. "Nadia… Hey."

"What are you two hiding?" She looked from him to Weiss in suspicion. Her dark hair framed her exotic face and he knew it drove his friend wild. Vaughn enjoyed his own girlfriend's face much more…There was just something about Syd that made him shiver… Maybe it was her hazel brown eyes that he got lost in or those dimples that appeared every time she smiled… He was slightly disappointed that she didn't come in with Nadia.

Weiss looked like a deer caught in the headlights, with his eyes wide and his hands fidgety. He tried to relax and smiled charmingly at her. "Nothing… Uhm, hey, we still on for tonight?"

"A double date to Romano's?" Nadia asked shifting the two folders in her hands. "Of course, wouldn't miss it for the world… But that actually wasn't why I came over here. I wanted to tell you that there's a briefing in the conference room in about ten minutes."

She walked over to Vaughn's desk and placed one of the vanilla folders on his desk. Then she moved over to Weiss' and planted a kiss on his cheek as she put the other folder in his lap. Straightening up, she grinned. "See you two in a few."

As she left, Vaughn rubbed his face in relief. This was just getting way too much for him to hide and he glared at Weiss for his rather unnerved behavior. His friend was never very good at hiding things from Nadia. Eric was so smitten by her that he practically fell apart whenever she came near him.

"What?" Weiss asked defensively.

"What…? You might as well have told her." Vaughn grumbled picking up his file and standing.

They began to walk down the hall to the main room where the secretaries and a few inters worked to keep the paperwork up to date. Dodging an intern heading to the copy machines, he searched for Sydney and found her standing right outside the conference room.

"No, that is not true… She didn't notice a thing." Weiss replied, stuffing a pen into the front pocket of his blazer.

Vaughn grinned when he caught Sydney's gaze and pecked her on the cheek once he got within range. She stood next to her sister with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. Pushing a loose strand behind her ear, she smiled at him.

"Hey you." She greeted holding the file against her chest with her arms wrapped around it.

"Hey." he replied still grinning. His gaze went down to his folder and he opened it to look over the information before the briefing.

Inside was a large black and white picture of a middle aged Englishman with gray sideburns and a dark mustache. Turning over the page, there were specs to a large three story building with three elevator shafts going through the middle. It looked like a fancy hotel.

"Come on in."

Vaughn looked up to catch Sloane passing by them with a cup of coffee. The director entered the conference room and put a pile of papers at the front of the table. Taking a sip from his coffee, he waited for everyone to come in.

They filed in one at a time and took their respected seats around the table. Vaughn sat down beside Sydney and Nadia sat with Weiss on the other side. Dixon, a respectable agent and Sydney's old working partner, took a seat next to Sydney. Marshall, their op-tech man, came in with a few interesting things in his hands along with a cup of coffee. He sat down closest to Sloane and placed his toys on the table. Jack was the last to join them in his pressed suit and stiff walk. He sat down on the other side of Nadia and next to Marshall.

"Morning everyone." Sloane cleared his throat and put his coffee cup onto the table. Folding his hands in front of him, he began to walk around them, slightly pacing. "At sixteen hundred hours, James Layton terminated his affiliation with the CIA. He was a specialist in the Technician's office at Langley, an MIT graduate, he is at the top of his field. However, thanks to Marshall, Langley noticed that tons of their materials were being shipped off to a different location. Money was being spent on projects not authorized by Director Chase."

Sloane pushed a button on his control to the large screen in front of them. A man in his late thirties came up on screen. He had dark hair in a business like cut with stubble on his chin. His blue eyes stared at him as if daring them to investigate him. Vaughn recognized him as the new graduate intern three years ago. They had bumped into each other in the lounge and the man had grumbled about watching where he was going.

"I remember him… Jimmy, he was the crabby intern on the third floor." Weiss pointed at the screen. "He was always in a hurry."

"Well two hours ago he turned up at the Swiss national bank where he took out two million dollars out of this account," Sloane brought up his records on his account, showing that there was over forty million dollars stored. "and transferred it to a man by the name of Broderick Sedgwick code named the Dark Bomber. You should find his picture in your files. He works within the black market, an arms dealer. He is believed to be behind many of the recent attacks on US embassies around the world, including one in Iraq which had been first blamed on the Taliban.

"CIA wants to know why Mr. Layton has an interest in the Dark Bomber. With his skills, he has the ability to create bombs far more superior than Daniel Ryan or his brother could even conceive."

"So are we going after Layton or Sedgwick?" Weiss asked looking at Sloane with a lack of enthusiasm that made everyone smile.

Sloane sat down in his chair and leaned back. "Neither… At least for now. We want to keep an eye on them. Marshall, I want you to track both men. See where they are heading. I want to keep tabs on everything they do, that means what they buy, sell, or hire. If anything seems suspicious, I want to know immediately. Once we have any evidence that they are making some type of weapon, we'll send in a task force to bring them in. Langley is sending in their men to do some recon work. However they want us to make the arrest when there's enough substantial evidence to do so. I just wanted to keep everyone updated on our main objective. That is all."

With that said, Sloane walked out and gestured to Jack to follow. Everyone else stayed put, watching silently as the two men left. It was normal for the two men to have a pow wow together, but it never made Vaughn feel comfortable. He knew that those two were the most underhanded men in their unit and they had done many questionable things in the past. He wasn't sure if they had an endgame to their partnership or not.

"Well that was interesting, to say the least." Weiss said, slightly off canter.

"Looks like I've got work to do." Marshall grinned. "I'll see you all later."

He walked out leaving the four of them.

Getting up, Vaughn stretched and grabbed his folder. He gaze moved to the other three and landed on Sydney. A smile appeared on his lips. "Lunch?"

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Hey all, hope you liked this chapter. I know it may seem a bit confusing, but it'll all unfold eventually. In the middle of exams, so as I said… Updates won't come as frequently as I'd like. Please feel free to comment or review and hey, your comments may change the ending of this story since I haven't finished it yet. So keep reviewing. Thanks!