So sorry guys… I know I've been MIA for a while. But rest assured chapter 18 is already in beta…
Chapter Seventeen
Deserted-
"I'm smitten."
"Gee. You could have fooled me," Vaughn couldn't contain an incredulous grunt as he pulled up a chair and helped himself to a heaping plate of pancakes. "What with the getting up early and cooking breakfast while whistling, I thought you were your normal not-hopelessly-in-love self."
Weiss felt his face flush with embarrassment, then his eyes narrowed. "If you're going to be like that, I refuse to bestow upon you the fruits of my good mood," he huffed, reaching menacingly toward Vaughn's breakfast.
Vaughn stopped him with a chuckle. It was so easy to yank Weiss's chain that sometimes he just couldn't help himself. "I'm just kidding, man. Don't touch the bacon."
Weiss withdrew his hand and gave his friend a long look. "I'm guessing from your own demeanor that things still aren't progressing the way you'd hoped with Syd."
"You could say that." He gave Weiss a mild look of warning but said nothing more, returning his attention to the plate in front of him.
"The irony is that her being so stubborn is part of what you love about her," Weiss continued thoughtfully before dousing his pancakes with syrup and attacking the tall stack with his fork.
Vaughn managed a thin smile and then shook his head; this wasn't a conversation that he wanted to have. "Let's talk about something else."
"Oo, I've been meaning to ask," Weiss perked up, "do you know any good jokes?"
"The resident comedian is asking me, his straight laced and by-the-book friend, for a joke?"
Weiss rolled his eyes, "First of all, you stopped being 'by-the-book' when you met Sydney, and second … I'm looking to impress a girl. And while my rapier wit and acumen observations may have my nieces and nephews in stitches, I don't think that's the kind of humor that would go over well with Natalie. You're the green-eyed god that has a way with women. I need a little help here."
Vaughn looked at him askance, "You're serious?" This new besotted Weiss was going to be difficult to get used to.
"Yes," he answered with more than a touch of exasperation.
Eying him for a long moment Vaughn shrugged, his confusion obvious, "You don't need me to tell you a joke. Just be yourself."
Weiss sighed, though his eyes held an amused glint, "If I wanted that kind of lame advice I would have asked my mother."
""
Sydney sat in her living room curled comfortably on her couch, Vaughn's words from the night before tumbling rapidly through her head. Was she fighting the wrong battle?
The cold hard facts were that the more she let a person become a part of her life, the more harm would befall them. She certainly would not be responsible for landing Vaughn into that category.
That damn prophet. Why her? Didn't she climb up that mountain? Wasn't that supposed to clear her of this burden? You cannot fight your destiny. No matter how hard she fought, no matter to what lengths she had gone, the prophesy had always bested her.
Was she truly nothing more than a pawn? Nothing more than a foil to be used and discarded when purpose fulfilled? Did she lack the power to control her own fate?
What a waste of a life. A waste of a soul.
Maybe she was simply 'The Chosen One.' Giving into her feelings would hurt everyone if she couldn't even control her own actions.
""
The conference room was full with the exception of one seat. It remained empty though the meeting was scheduled to have started - Sydney glanced at her watch - six minutes ago.
Dixon's patience was wearing thin. "Agent Weiss," he barked, "go get him."
Nodding, Weiss stood up and started hastily toward the exit. Just as his outstretched hand reached for the door Marshall burst into the room, talking at full speed.
"I'm sorry, Sir… I…I just… it seems that…"
"Marshall," Dixon ordered, "sit down. You're late."
Marshall's mouth closed suddenly, and he stalked dejectedly to his chair, pausing every few steps as if to speak before being silenced by an ominous glare from the director.
"We have a situation," Dixon addressed the room. "Echelon picked up a disturbing pair of words…"
"Biological weapon," Marshall finished for him, then, realizing his breach, snapped his jaw shut and shoved both hands firmly over his mouth.
"How did you know that?"
Standing up, Marshall took an uneasy breath and began, "Well, Sir… that's what I was telling you – or, well… trying to tell you – when I came in. I'm sorry I was late, by the way, but remember when I said that there was something else on the Rambaldi page? Well, I've figured it out. It appears that Rambaldi created a formula for a biological weapon. An airborne viral strain."
"What do we know about it?" Sydney's concern was palpable.
"Well, we know that it is not good. Very, very not good. I mean, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being not good, this would have to be somewhere in the hundreds…"
"What exactly is it that we are looking for Marshall?" she attempted again to focus the easily distracted technician.
"Well, it looks like a recipe, etched into a paper sized sheet of glass." Marshall grimaced slightly, "It actually sounds quite beautiful… for a weapon of global destruction."
"It seems that the Covenant claims to know where this formula is located," the director spoke gravely, "but we do not yet have coordinates."
"Yes we do." All heads again swiveled toward Marshall. "The artifact is hidden in a cave along the Salado River near the Atacama desert in Chile. Apparently Rambalid wanted someone," he shot an uneasy look toward Sydney, "to be able to retrieve it."
"We must obtain this weapon before the Covenant. Sydney, Vaughn, Weiss, Gray -- You leave in half an hour."
""
"Pass the water," Natalie requested from the back seat of the Humvee as she fanned herself with her hand, "I'm about ready to turn into a pile of dust."
"You'd think this place hadn't seen rain for hundreds of years," Weiss observed from beside her as he passed a canteen.
Vaughn wiped the sweat from his brown, "How about a little water for the driver? After all, I'm the only one working right now; you all are just relaxing and working on your tans."
"Not in these desert BDU's," Natalie complained, leaning forward to hand the canteen to Vaughn. As Vaughn reached out to take the canister a bump in the road caused Natalie to lose her grip, spilling the entire contents down Vaughn's chest.
"Ah!" he yelped, swerving slightly before regaining control of the vehicle.
"Whoops," Natalie offered flatly, winking at Weiss. "Sorry 'bout that."
Weiss snorted but quickly subsided when Vaughn shot him a glare through the mirror. He turned to Sydney in time to see her broad smile. "Right. Thanks for all of the support pals," he drawled. "You just think you're better off than me because I'm sitting here like a drowned rat and you're completely dry."
"Never," Sydney recovered with a playful grin. "The thought never crossed my mind."
"Well, the joke is on you," he turned to Sydney, "you see, I am now comfortably cool while you, on the other hand, are uncomfortably hot."
"You've never been uncomfortable with Sydney's hotness before," Natalie piped up from the back of the vehicle, causing a red glow to creep up the back of Vaughn's neck.
"Aww Vaughn," Sydney chuckled softly before reaching over to help mop up some of the liquid from his shirt. For just a moment she allowed her body to slip into his personal space, one hand on his chest. Still focusing purposefully on her self appointed task she continued in the barest whisper, "You actually look good . . . wet," she observed quietly.
Vaughn's eyes flared for a brief moment, before his gaze hardened and lifted, refocusing on the road ahead of him.
Weiss couldn't take it anymore. "Alright already. Get a room people. Or better yet, I don't know, how about we find this biological weapon thingy that the side of darkness and evil is tracking down in this godforsaken desert as we speak."
When Sydney and Vaughn broke apart uncomfortably he turned to Natalie and lowered his voice, "The sport is in making them both uncomfortable at the same time, it's like shooting fish in a barrel if you just go after one of them." He patted her thigh consolingly, "you'll learn in time."
""
As the narrow road turned through a small break in the towering canyon walls, Natalie couldn't suppress an involuntary shiver. She had a bad feeling about their new position. The open desert trail had quickly given way and was now leading them into an increasingly vulnerable situation; on the right a steep grade covered with thick rock slabs, on the left the ground dropped quickly to canyon floor, now a hundred feet below. There was something dangerous about this, and it had all of her survival sensors buzzing. They had no place to go.
"This feels like a trap," she observed to no one in particular. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Sydney nod.
"Something's not right," Weiss agreed beside her.
Unable to turn around on the narrow road Vaughn continued to drive cautiously through the burning afternoon sun while keeping a sharp eye trained on each crevasse, every rock, and any turn in the terrain.
"Down!" Natalie shouted suddenly as she saw muzzle flashes from behind a large boulder.
"Turn around Vaughn," Sydney ordered. "We need to find cover."
Vaughn ducked low and swung the Humvee hard left, in the tightest arc that the vehicle could manage, but his progress was hindered by the narrow road. They didn't have time.
Weiss heard a clatter and glanced down at desert floor. A small round object skittered toward them. His eyes widened in shock, "GRENADE!" He had a brief glimpse of the startled look on Natalie's face before he hit her with the full weight of his body.
His momentum carried them halfway out of the Humvee and into the air before the detonation blew them the rest of the way out of the vehicle and into the sand. They hit with a bone-jarring thump and rolled to a halt.
Stretching his body to cover her, Weiss gave Natalie the best protection he could from the thrust of the blast. A second explosion told him the Humvee had just gone up. He hugged the ground and covered his head, wincing as debris rained down on them.
Sydney groaned and rolled onto her side, holding her head. Her forced trip from the vehicle had left her covered with cuts from debris. She carefully propped herself up to look for better cover. A knot of fear clenched in her stomach as she spotted a motionless Vaughn a few feet away under a pile of rubble.
Heedless of the smattering of bullets that tracked her progress toward him, Sydney drug herself carefully to his crumpled form and quickly began yanking off chunks of metal, not bothering to protect her from the sharp edges. She winced when she saw blood flowing from a gash on his forehead. She placed two fingers on the side of his neck, tentatively searching for a pulse and heaved a sigh of relief. Vaughn let out a soft moan. At least he was still breathing.
Glancing quickly toward the burnt out vehicle, Natalie let out a short breath when she saw Sydney bending over Vaughn. "Syd, take cover," Natalie urged, turning to monitor the advancing unfriendlies.
"He's out, head wound," Syd answered tightly.
"Internal injuries?" Weiss asked, crawling cautiously toward the pair.
"I don't know, but I'm not leaving him," Syd responded deliberately. She didn't have to say more. They understood.
"Get him awake fast or we're all dead." Natalie hissed, reaching for her gun.
"Too late."
The sardonic voice echoed through the thick stillness that flowed in the wake of gunfire and explosions.
Shifting her aim in the direction of the voice, Natalie watched as Julian Sark stepped casually from behind a large outcropping of rock, flanked by five men brandishing weapons.
"You won't be able to shoot all of us, at least not before we kill all of your friends. You might as well relinquish your weapon now."
Seeing no other option, Natalie slowly dropped her gun to the sand kicked it firmly toward their destroyed Humvee, then took a determined step closer to Weiss as Sark's men approached.
"Sorry about the grenade," Sark continued, "the boys were a little over-zealous." He looked meaningfully at Sydney, "You know I'd never want you to die so tastelessly."
She bristled reflexively, "How thoughtful."
"I, on the other hand," Lauren strolled through the pack of guards and smiled at Sydney, "was all for it."
Catching a glimpse of Vaughn slumped unconscious on the ground, she inclined her head in exaggerated concern. "How is my faithful husband? I hope he's not hurt," she continued, her tone turning threatening, ". . . I was hoping to have a hand in that."
Lauren squatted down on her heels near Vaughn, "You need to wake up now Sweetheart so we can tell you about how you were duped into leading us here. You want to know all about it, don't you?"
She reached out and slapped him lightly, "Open your eyes when I'm talking to you," she ordered sternly. When Vaughn didn't respond, she hit him harder.
Vaughn grunted and slowly opened his eyes, squinting painfully toward Lauren. She smiled at him as she stood, "Hurts does it? Such a shame. "
Sydney's insides hardened in barely controlled rage. Heedless of the people surrounding her, she turned to Vaughn and placed a soothing hand on his face.
Vaughn felt her cool fingers touch his cheek and then slide up to forehead. He flinched when they hit a sensitive spot. That must be why he felt so dizzy. He forced his eyes open the rest of the way and took in the scene before him. Natalie and Weiss stood off to one side surrounded by armed guards. Sydney was with him, but both Sark and Lauren had weapons and Sark's was trained directly on Sydney. The situation was certainly not ideal.
"Vaughn, you're going to be okay," Sydney ignored Lauren's menacing glare.
"Don't bother lying, Sydney," Sark snorted in disgust. "He's fulfilled his usefulness by leading us here. At this point we are only using him for insurance that you won't try to escape.
"And while we're on that topic," he taunted, "you certainly knocked my estimation of your abilities down a few notches when you rescued Mr. Vaughn from that warehouse. I should have trusted Lauren when she suggested that as long as he was involved we could have given you a security pass key and you still wouldn't suspect a set up."
He turned to Lauren and smiled, "You were right Darling, putting that tracker in Vaughn was utilitarian as well as had a flare of artistic irony. Very well done."
Sydney met his gaze, her expression hardened, "You son of a . . ."
"Ah ah ah Ms. Bristow," Sark's acerbic challenge cut her off, "let's not stoop to name calling."
He turned to Lauren, "We're starting to loose daylight. Let's move."
Nodding once in affirmation, Lauren loomed over Vaughn while Sark stood sentry, his weapon still focused on Sydney.
"One more thing."
Leaning down suddenly, Lauren grabbed Vaughn by the collar and yanked him halfway off the ground. He barely had time to groan before her fist connected with the side of his jaw. Lauren released her hold and dropped him in a semi conscious heap. "That was for cheating on me." Gesturing to the men, she rose to watch as Sydney and Vaughn were bundled into the back of their vehicle.
A guard approached Sark as he stepped behind the wheel of the truck. "What do you want us to do with the others, sir?"
Looking over his shoulder toward Natalie and Weiss, Sark's response was deadly quiet.
"Kill them."