Chapter 4
I Walk Alone

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

Greenday, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

McKenas Cole picked up his phone. Dialing Bill's number, he waited for an answer. When no one picked up, Cole decided to call later and then rang Irina.

"Hello?" she answered.

"It's Cole."

"What do you want?"

"I've got intelligence from our mole that Jack has a lead on you and is moving in."

"Your mole?"

"Remember Echelon?"

"Right, you can't say."

"All I'm going to say is that you should get out of there."

"Duly noted," Irina said, hanging up. She loaded a tranquilizer dart into her gun and got ready. All she needed was one clean shot of Vaughn to take care of the necessary business. She didn't like going against Bill, but she had thought of an alternative to tearing them apart. She was going to act on that.

"Sydney, please stop!" Vaughn begged.

"What?"

"Listen, we have this room for another night. It's late. Can we please just wait until morning? We can leave right away."

Sydney looked at Vaughn. "I am kind of tired, but what about Francie?"

"Let Francie be. When Danny died, I'm sure that you needed some time to yourself. You did, didn't you?"

"Yes, but it was also my friend's support that helped me get through it."

"You can still support Francie from here. Call her. Comfort her. Then tomorrow, we'll return the keys and leave."

"Okay," Sydney said, picking up the phone.

"I'm going out for a jog for a little bit," Vaughn said realizing that Sydney needed some space.

As he was running along the beach, he felt something lodge in his neck. As the world swirled around him, he managed to make out Irina before he dropped.

Check my vital signs
To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

I walk alone
I walk alone

Irina dragged Vaughn's body over to a gardening shed behind a local house and injected adrenaline into him to wake him up. He woke up with a start. Irina turned on the lights suddenly, and Vaughn had to squint as his eyes adjusted.

Irina looked at him. "Having a nice weekend, Agent Vaughn?"

He looked around. "What do you want?"

"I have some advice for you."

"Screw you."

"This advice is for both Sydney's and your protection. I'd suggest you listen to me."

"Do you honestly think I'd trust you? You killed my father."

Irina clenched her teeth. Bill had instructed her a long time ago not to tell him if she ever came into contact with him. "You want to keep Sydney safe, right?"

"Of course."

"Then, Agent Vaughn, I'd think you'd be smart enough to pay attention." Irina explained what she wanted him to do and her motivation for telling him such.

Will's body was wheeled through the door at the Joint Task Force building. "How's the investigation going?" Kendall asked.

"Actually," the coroner said, "from what it sounds like, they're suspecting foul play. The investigators have ordered a full autopsy."

"Let me know when you get the results," Kendall told him.

"Mr. Kendall," an agent said to him, "you have a phone call."

Picking up the receiver, Kendall said, "This is Kendall. Who am I speaking to?"

"Mr. Kendall, it's Arvin Sloane." Kendall snapped his fingers furiously at a passing agent.

"Trace this call!"

"No need, Mr. Kendall, I'll tell you right where I am. I'm in Monterrey, Mexico."

"Why are you telling me this now?"

"I want to negotiate a pardon."

Vaughn got back into the room and headed right for the phone. Giving his identification information, he was eventually connected to Kendall. "Kendall here."

"Agent Kendall, this is Agent Vaughn. Irina Derevko is in Santa Barbara!"

"What?" Sydney yelled.

"I'll dispatch an agent," Kendall said.

Vaughn hung up, and looked at Sydney. "She just kidnapped me. She told me things. I don't know if I believe her or not, but what she said seemed legitimate."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. What's that?"

Sydney sat down next to Vaughn. She handed him the pregnancy test. "It's blue," she said.

Vaughn couldn't believe his ears. Irina warned him this might happen. He was starting to believe her.

Scraping the ash off of Will's skeleton, Coroner James Terry saw the round bullet hole in the forehead. "His death wasn't an accident," he said.

…TBC…