Sitting down in her chair, she couldn't help but grin. It had been a long time since she had felt so good. Most of the time she just felt too confused, but tonight was perfect. She leaned over and kissed Vaughn on the cheek to show her appreciation. His head turned and he was grinning too. She figured they both looked rather ridiculous with the big goofy smiles on their face.
"Hey, hey everyone." Weiss stood up and spoke loudly to the other patrons at the restaurant. Vaughn put his face in his hands in embarrassment and Nadia tried to pull her boyfriend back into his seat.
"Wiess…" Nadia pleaded, but Weiss ignored her.
He picked up his glass and looked over at Vaughn who was still hiding in his hands. "If I can get your attention for just one second."
She could see a small tint of red in her fiancée's skin and she leaned her head on his shoulder. Looking over at her, Vaughn let out a sigh and then shrugged as if there was nothing he could do.
"I just wanted to announce that my two best friends who've I've know forever have just gotten engaged tonight!" Weiss grinned and raised his glass above his head for a toast. "I must say… It's about damn time! To you two and may you be happy together for the rest of your lives."
People around them that had taken the time to pay attention began to clap and cheer. Weiss nodded to both of them and then took a sip of his wine. Nadia did the same and then laughed once people turned back to their own lives.
"Thanks." Vaughn rubbed his face and then raised his glass to finish the toast.
"I don't think this night could have gone any more perfectly." Nadia grinned after taking a sip from her own glass. "Let me see the ring."
Sydney moved her hand over to where her sister could see and she herself took a better look at it. It was a simple ring made out of white gold. There were three small diamonds, one sat in the middle of the band with the other smaller two on each side. She couldn't have asked for anything better and it meant so much to her that it had been his mother's.
"Wow, where did you buy this?" Nadia asked.
"You should have seen the lengths this guy went to retrieve it." Weiss teased, leaning back in his chair as he wrapped his arm around her.
Vaughn's smile turned sheepish. "It was my mother's. My father brought it back from South Africa and had the ring made just for her. Then her proposed with it… I got it when I went off to college and sold it later on."
"It went to Transylvania and back again." Weiss told them. "He went through several years worth of receipts and jewelry stores. Marshall finally located it in France. It was owned by some antique jeweler."
"So on a mission over there, I took a detour and went to the shop to see if they still had it." Vaughn looked over at Sydney. "I didn't tell you this, but I melted down my father's watch in order to use the gold off of it to refinish the ring. I thought… since it meant so much to me… remember how it had stopped working when I met you. I thought it would be perfect."
"It is." Sydney replied, surprised that he had gotten rid of his father's watch to repair the ring. "I can't believe you did all that."
Shrugging, Vaughn kissed her softly on the lips and then grinned. "I wanted everything to be perfect."
"So that whole needing to do something for Sloane…?" Nadia looked up at Weiss.
"Some things are meant to be secret." Weiss replied as if he had no intention on telling them what they were doing for a full three hours before they had to arrive at the restaurant.
Their plates of food were set on the table and just as they were about to dig in, Sydney's cell phone began to ring. She looked down at it and heard Vaughn's phone go off too. Then Weiss's and Nadia's phones went off and they all knew what was up.
Weiss held his hand up to tell Vaughn and Sydney not to pick theirs up. He answered his phone in annoyance and rolled his eyes. "Hey, this is Weiss… Nope, haven't seen them… Well I'm having dinner with someone… It might be, why?… I'll relay the message, but I have a feeling they got lost out on the beaches somewhere… Well is it necessary?… I'll be right in."
Clicking his phone closed, he let out a long sigh. "So of course the world is going to end tonight and Sloane wants us in his office ASAP. However, you two are lost and will remain lost."
"Weiss…" Sydney protested, knowing that if it was important, they should be there.
"No, don't Weiss me. Nadia and I will cover for you tonight. But we expect to see you bright and early tomorrow morning no matter what." he told her as if acting as a scolding parent. Standing up, he waved to the waiter. "Uhm, can we get these two plates to go?"
"Thanks." Vaughn said appreciatively.
"Don't have too much fun without us." he replied and guided Nadia out once they received their doggie bags.
"Well." Sydney said taking in a deep breath and looking over at Vaughn who seemed quite content in their situation.
He lifted his eyebrows as if to ask 'now what?' "Well… want to go to the piers after we eat?"
"I think I've had enough time to think." She replied with a devilish grin. "We could go to my place."
"Yeah?"
………………………………………………………………………………………….
"I thought you had my back on this one." Vaughn grumbled as he fixed his tie.
They walked into APO at one in the morning and he was rather ticked at having to be there. Just after arriving as Sydney's place, Weiss called them saying that it was an emergency and they had to come in.
The only thing Vaughn had gotten to do was change into his business suit and grab popsicle while heading out the door as Sydney started the car. Out of her dress and in to her business suit, she gave him a slightly disappointed smile as they drove out.
"It was either you two enjoying your night and the China nuclear bomb blasting away half of Taiwan or me dragging you into the office. I had no other choice." Weiss replied with a shrug. "Plus Jack basically ripped my arm off to find out where you were. The guy is very persuasive when it comes to finding out about his daughter."
"I know." Vaughn replied, remembering the long stiff silence after he had asked the man for his daughter's hand in marriage. He knew that it wasn't going to be the most comfortable thing in the world to do, but he felt that it was a necessity to do. Also, he didn't even really care if the man approved or not. It was more of a polite announcement than anything else.
Jack came bursting out of his office and looked around for his daughter who had just come in after a detour to the bathroom to take the rest of her makeup off. She had her hair back in a French braid and as she walked in, she tucked her long bangs behind her ear.
"Dad, what's going on?" Sydney asked coming to stand next to Vaughn.
Jack looked from her face to Vaughn's and then back at hers. "Interpol just picked up a phone call made by the top terrorist agent in China. They're setting up some kind of explosion in Taiwan and if the explosion goes off, we're looking at another Vietnam."
"Why now? Aren't there peace talks going on? Aren't diplomats from both countries trying to settle the historical tensions between the two?" she asked.
"Yeah, well there's actually some people who don't want that to happen." Weiss told them.
Sloane poked his head out and waved them into his office. "Come quickly for your mission brief. Plane will be leaving at oh-five hundred hours. We have no time to waste."
Feeling like he was being pulled through a tornado, Vaughn followed everyone into the conference room and noticed Dixon and Marshall already seated. He sat down next to Sydney who took a seat next to Dixon.
He saw Dixon looking down at Sydney's hand. The man grinned in approval. "I told you so… Congratulations."
"Thanks." Sydney smiled with a slight glow.
"As Jack has already updated you on, Echelon and Interpol both picked up telephone relays that have informed us that at twenty-one hundred hours, the terrorist group, the Black Dragons, has set up a nuclear war missile that is directly targeted to hit Taipei. After all the relation talks in China, this would not be a good international affairs move for the Chinese government and the Taiwanese government would be forced to act. We are looking at a set up for another Vietnam catastrophe, which amid the Iraqi problems, would not be a good thing for the American government to deal with." Sloane told them.
He turned to the widescreen in front of them and brought up a fuzzy picture that probably came from a security camera. It was a man of Asian decent in westernized clothing. His hair was smoothed back and his chin was lined with hair. "This is Chen Hsieh, former intelligence officer for the Chinese Communist government gone rogue after the Korean War. He is on the international's ten most wanted list and is the suspect behind ten or so attacks on U.S. Embassies located throughout Asia. We believe that the telephone messages we caught were being transferred to him at his hideout in downtown Beijing."
"So the CIA wants us to go in? Why not just send in their own agents?" Dixon asked with his hands folded in his lap.
"Because our relationship with China is already on a thin wire and we can't afford barging in. The Chinese government has denied any nuclear programs within their country's parameters. If the CIA went in, they would accuse us of breaking an international treaty. This is about as sensitive as the North Korean mission that occurred a year ago." Jack told them matter-of-factly.
Sloane switched the picture on the screen to architecture plans of a building. "Now this is where we believe they will be launching the nuke. It's right outside the capital in China. CIA wants us to infiltrate the building and shut it down… completely. Vaughn and Sydney, I want you on point. Nadia and Weiss will provide back up support. Jack and Marcus, you're going to be their eyes. Marshall will provide op-tech support. I want you up and ready within the hour."
"Wait, what about Layton and Sedgwick? I thought they were our first priority." Sydney said before Sloane could leave. She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for him to explain their sudden change in assignments.
Sloane nodded and shut off the screen. "As you know Agent Bristow, things can change suddenly. CIA has changed our main target."
"So we're off the case completely?" Dixon asked.
"No." Sloane admitted. "Just for the time being. For now, our focus is on Chen. CIA has Mr. Layton covered for now. In fact, we're sending some of our new agents over to help out their men in an interdepartmental task force. I want you to focus on the larger mission at hand. Afterwards we can deal with the rogue. Everyone understand?"
Sloane smiled in a lizard-like manner and then left the room. After taking a moment to wonder where he was going, they all began quickly searching through their files to figure out the best way to infiltrate.
"It says here that Chen will be holding a large reception right before the launch… I bet it's a cover for them." Weiss stated.
"So we can do another Moscow…like what we did to destroy the Medusa?" Vaughn asked looking quickly at the schematics. If he was correct, the ballroom was in the main building and there was a tunnel to get to the labs. Attached to the labs was a long shaft that went to the roof. It was probably where the rocket would be launched. If they could destroy the lab without the nuclear bomb exploding and also keeping the other part from being destroyed, then they would have their job done without any civilians getting killed. But then, when did their missions ever go as planned?
Sydney rubbed the back of her neck. "We'd have to get invited to the banquet as guests and sneak in undetected. Do we know what type of security this place has?"
Marshall stood up and grabbed the controller that Sloane had in his hand earlier. Pushing a button, the screen turned back on with the architecture plans. Another click and lines appeared all around the laboratory rooms.
"This is their security system. They have a lockdown mechanism in place when someone without the passkey tries to enter. Once they enter, all the doors lock and the intruder can't get out. The intruder is locked in this part right here and a carbon monoxide kills them within minutes. However, if the intruder does happen to get in undetected, they have other measures including the fact that the control room has laser sensors and pressure sensors on the floor so that anyone without Chen's knowledge enters the room, it'll also go into lockdown mode." Marshall explained with a laser pointer.
Weiss raised his eyebrows. "This guy's freakin' schitzo."
"But that's not the best… worst part." Marshall winced slightly. "They have a camera in every part of their building, meaning we'd have to override their system to keep you out of view."
"We've done that before." Sydney replied, not sure what the problem with that was.
Marshall shook his head. "The thing is that they also have pressure sensors so that if someone did override their system, they'd still know there was someone in their building that shouldn't be. They keep track of where everyone is at any time."
"Can you override the pressure system?" Nadia asked.
"Me, of course I can… But you'll probably have to run through a mile long tunnel within five minutes because the guards switch every five minutes and if they don't see that in their monitors, they'll get suspicious."
"So what's our plan of action?" Vaughn asked.