Disclaimer: I am not J.J. and I don't own Alias. If I did I would not have time to post stories on this site because I would be basking in the glory of my own brilliance on my private yacht, near my home on Aruba.
Ch. 4 "Operation Fuzhou"
Syd looked in the mirror. No average American teenager wore this much makeup, not rich ones, not ugly ones, not even Mary Kay test subjects, yet she had to because apparently the typical, wealthy, American girl looked like a circus clown. "Even my dad would interfere if he saw me looking like this," she thought.
Besides a ton of makeup, she was also wearing a Britney Spears like outfit, plaid skirt, pig tails and all, along with what seemed like a whole pack of chewing gum in her mouth. Dixon didn't look that much better. Although he lacked pigtails and a mini-skirt, he had a loud t-shirt and so much gangsta jewelry that it looked like he was about to tip over. His hat was off to the side, a fad that had died a long time ago. Syd had heard that the guys that came up with their gadgets and costumes as she and Dixon fondly called them, hadn't seen sunlight for years. She was starting to believe it.
Sydney checked herself once again in the mirror and walked out of the bathroom and into the main room of the plane. She still wasn't use to flying. The first time she had flown she had almost thrown up, but had luckily conquered her fear before she upchucked. Dixon, however, wasn't so lucky. It took him his third trip before he was able to look out the window without running for the bathroom. Syd looked over at her partner. He was trying to do his math homework, while listening to some deafly loud music. And considering his pencil was tapping along with the song and his head was swinging back and forth to the beat, Syd determined he wasn't getting very much accomplished. She looked toward her own stack of homework. She almost wished she had taken Sloane up on his offer. But she knew it would be unfair for her to get special treatment because of what she did. Although, it would be handy if she didn't have to hand her homework in as early as everyone else. Of course, then she'd have to explain to Francie and Will why her paper on the evolution of mankind wasn't due for another two days. And the excuse of being on the "debate team" wasn't a very good one.
They finally landed in Fuzhou. Syd braced herself for another perilous and dangerous mission and chomped the gum so furiously that the man on the other end of her communicator told her to please keep the noise down. She and Dixon entered the school and Syd went into spoiled, American, spends Daddy's credit cards and runs up excruciatingly large bills, mode. Dixon began to saunter in his steps obviously humming a rap song to get into the mood.
As they approached the office, a Chinese man with an Armani suit and a red silk tie approached them.
"Welcome," he said in suspiciously good English. "I am glad to meet both of you." As he said this he reached out his hand.
Sydney ignored it and twirled her finger through her hair looking around at the building. Dixon grabbed the man's hand and purposely tried to perform a hand shake he and his friends did. Since the man was new to this kind of greeting it didn't go very well, which was expected.
After regaining custody of his hand, the man smiled and said, "I am Principal Chang. Please, let me show you around."
Syd and Dixon exchanged amused glances. So far everything was going as planned.
They walked around the school for awhile, going in different classrooms that were not holding class at the time. Syd made a mental note of each of the rooms that were not classrooms, as they could be where the drugs were being stored. After they had seen about half of the school, Sydney got ready for phase two.
"Excuse me, Mr. Ching. But is there a bathroom in this joint?"
Mr. Chang, not seeming surprised at her messing up his name, pointed towards the nearest bathroom and told her she could meet them in the music room. Sydney started toward where he had pointed and only altered her course after she saw them turn the corner. Then she ran as fast and as quietly as she could to the computer lab they had recently gone by. She found it empty and removed the wire from her notebook, hooked it up to the school's computer and her pen. Then she sat down, cracked her knuckles, and hoped Mr. Chang had minimal security. She found the files easy enough and hacking in to it was easier than Algebra 1. She downloaded the files, removed all evidence of her tampering and scampered down the hall to meet Mr. Druglord and homeboy.
She entered the room and as Dixon was still alive, there was a good chance Chang was unaware of what she had just done and was just as dumb as his password.
Dixon and she suffered for another fifteen minutes before Dixon began his performance.
He was so good at it, Sydney forgot for the moment that he was suppose to be having a seizure. But this moment of forgetfulness made the look on her face even more convincing. Chang, who looked like he was about to have an attack himself, hurriedly got out his cell phone and called the nurse. He couldn't risk bringing attention to himself and his low profile school by sending someone to the hospital. He only hoped that the dumb, American boy, with the gaudy jewelry didn't die. That wouldn't look good.
While Chang was growing hysterical, Sydney put on such a good charade of worry that no one would have ever suspected that she was still assessing the situation not currently at hand. If she hadn't known what the school was really a front for she would have been surprised why Chang's cell phone wasn't working. But considering that SD-6 had blocked all communiqué, strictly for this use, she already knew all this. Chang, whiter than a polar bear by now, ran out of the room to get the nurse. Once it was clear Syd and Dixon leapt into action.
"I'll check the west side, you check the east one," Dixon told her as they separated.
As Sydney headed toward her destination she stated singing in her head. "Here we are now going to the east side. I pick up my friends and we start to ride......"
Waiting stinks. Especially when you've waited for eight years. And especially when you're stuck waiting in the cafeteria.
Irina knew she was being stupid. She had been stupid to contact Sydney in the first place and even stupider to actually show up at the party. Now she was at the school, washing dishes of hundreds of kids, including her own and in doing that, working for the very man that her husband also worked for. "Except Jack probably doesn't get wrinkled hands when he does his dirty work. I do clean work and I still get wrinkles."
Coming here didn't even make any sense. The most she would be able to do was see Sydney eat. And for that small time each day she had to wear layer apon layer of makeup, the itchiest wig that was ever manufactured, and on top of that she hated cleaning. Then there was the dangerous factors. One: she was working for Arvin Sloane and that fact by itself scared her because Sloane was just plain scary. Two: Although, her source had indicated that Jack hadn't set foot in this school since he enrolled Sydney, apparently he had chosen the day she had come herself, to make an appearance. She had been waiting patiently outside Sloane's door, waiting to apply for a job as a lunch lady when Jack had come rocketing through, looking like he was ready to put a bullet through someone's head. She had seen that look before when they had been doing tax bills and she was so glad she was not on the receiving line of that anger. Considering who ran this school though, she was surprised Jack hadn't darkened the door before. Three: Suppose Jack did darken the door again? She might not be as lucky as she had been last time. But then he thought she was dead and there was very little chance he'd recognize her in this get up. Besides if he knew nothing about who she really was, he had to at least know that whether she was Laura Bristow or Irina Derevko, washing dishes was just disgusting.
Since Jack had found out the truth, he hadn't slept. He was trying to figure out how he could have missed it, how Sloane had recruited Sydney without his knowing. Was he so uninvolved in Sydney's life that he hadn't realized what was going on? Was he that bad a father? The questions plagued him. It reminded him of another time in his life when he had questioned his choices in life, among other things. What he wouldn't give for a scotch right now. But he was on a flight to Singapore, to represent Jennings Aerospace and obtain codes for SD-6. Drinking right now would be dangerous and foolhardy. Jack ordered one anyway.
"And how you shoved that lip gloss up that guy's nose was awesome!"
Dixon was relating their mission to Marshall. Sydney felt that he was giving her way to much credit. After all, he had been the one that had seen the guards come in and who had held them off why Syd had destroyed the drugs. Then she had helped Dixon fight off Chang's goons and that was when she had remembered the lip gloss Marshall had given her. She took it and thrust it into one of the goon's nostrils. He passed out instantaneously. Next, Dixon and she did some Jackie Chan moves to get rid of the rest of the opposition. When that didn't work, Sydney pushed a crate on top of the guards. Then the young spies had ran out of the building to the extraction point as fast as Syd's heels would allow.
Sloane walked into the room just as Dixon finished his story. A few moments later the bell rang. Syd was about to walk out the door when Sloane stopped her.
"Sydney, you did excellent work in Fuzhou. You're a credit to the CIA."
Sydney nodded and continued on to her class. She wondered why he had only said something to her and not Dixon. She pondered this while she walked to her locker.
"Hey Sydney!"
Sydney turned toward the voice and was surprised and pleased to find the voice belonged to Danny.
"Hey." Syd knew it was a lame response, but it was the best she could come up with. She wondered if her uneasiness around the male gender had anything to do with her father. But then she wasn't uneasy around Will, Dixon, Marshall, or Principal Sloane, well, sometimes she was uneasy around Sloane, but that was for another reason altogether. But besides those people, she really didn't associate with guys.
"Um Sydney, I was thinking....if you're not planning another birthday party or something...would you like to go to a movie on Friday?" he finished somewhat confidently.
"I'd love too," Syd answered trying hard not to sound as extactic as she really was.
"Good. That'd be great. I guess I better get to class then."
"Me too."
They both just stared at each other for a bit and then they started to feel self conscious and they parted company. Syd could hardly contain her excitement. She couldn't wait to tell Francie.
Thanks again to those who reviewed. I'm trying to post these chapters as quick as I can, but unfortunetly this isn't a paying job. If only.......
Anyhoo, to sweetsouthernbell07: In response to your "coughvaughncoughcough" it won't before a while, but I'm working on it. And I also wish I had a Marshall around to fix my computer when it does "funky" things that aren't so funky.
To sweetytweety013: That's a cute name!!! and thanx for the review.
To morrisseylover: Yeah, I know Jack is sour, but in an upcomming chapter he's not going to be. He's going to be in a completely different state. (Hee!)
