Chapter 30
Sydney looked at Irina in the clothes that she had been supplied before the meeting. The CIA had also placed four trackers on Irina. Sydney had offered to be one of the guards. The offer hadn't come from the desire to be there on the chance that Irina might have been using this to betray the CIA; the offer came because Sydney hadn't seen Vaughn for five days, and she was about to go out of her mind.
The van pulled up, and Masa stepped out. Sydney swallowed hard as his guards followed. Sydney looked behind the group of three. She saw Vaughn's head appear in the door. One eye was purple and badly swollen, and as more became visible, Sydney saw his left middle finger with a piece of white tape around it. Sydney tried to hold in the tears that were biting at the edges of her eyes. She would not let these men see her cry. Vaughn got out and headed for Sydney. She started running towards him. They met in a tight embrace. Blinking back the tears was taking so much more effort now. I WILL NOT CRY! Sydney decided resolutely. She felt his arms around her waist, and the dam broke. "I missed you," she whispered into his ear.
"Thinking of you was what helped get me through this," Vaughn said into her ear. Pulling her away from him, Vaughn looked her in the eye. "I love you."
Sydney smiled, tasting salt water as some of her tears managed to get into her mouth. "I love you too, Vaughn."
He studied Sydney's eyes intently. "How's J. D?"
"He's fine. Jack's taking care of him."
"Good."
"What's the meeting for?" Sydney asked, hating to have to deal with work at a time like this.
"Who knows." Vaughn stated, and then chuckled softly. "Who really even cares?"
"Good point," Sydney said with a smile. She glanced over at her mother who was shaking hands with the man who had been responsible for the fact that Sydney had been separated from the love of her life for the past five days. "I have to go over there," Sydney said holding Vaughn's hand up to her mouth. Giving it a soft kiss, she started to walk away. As they reached the point where Sydney figured Vaughn would let go, she was surprised when he pulled her back into his arms.
Covering her mouth with his, Vaughn forced his tongue into Sydney's willing mouth. The kiss lasted for what seemed like forever, and when Vaughn finally let her go, Sydney walked away with a smile. By the time she managed to get over to Irina, she managed to hear Masa utter the word, "Deal," and then saw them shake hands. One of the guards went back to the van and brought out a suitcase. Opening it, he showed that it contained The Hourglass, and handed it over to Irina. Irina walked back to the van they had arrived in, discussed the monetary transfer to the agent on the inside, who transferred the money to Mr. Raidon's account.
When they received confirmation of the transaction, Masa said out loud, "Pleasure doing business with you."
Turning to walk back to their respective vans, everyone whirled around as a gunshot rang out; everyone, that is, except Masa Raidon whose body slowly crumpled to the ground. Sydney and the other CIA guard pulled out their guns and trained them on Masa's guards who had their weapons trained on the CIA team.
Tension crackled in the air, and an all out war began when another gunshot sounded and yet another person dropped to the ground.
"NO!" Sydney yelled out as blood started to stain the shirt of the person on the ground.
…TBC…