Alias Mars

By Michael Weyer

Part eight: My Boyfriend's Back and You're Gonna Be in Trouble….

Logan and Duncan both sat at the couch, staring at the man sitting in a chair before them. Duncan just stared blankly while Logan had a look of bemusement on his face. "Let me get this straight," he said. "We're supposed to buy you're with the CIA and Veronica has been kidnapped by a terrorist working with Wally Goodman to take over Neptune?"

Vaughn nodded.

Logan looked around. "Okay, Ashton, I'm nowhere near famous enough for this! You sure you couldn't get Trina?"

Vaughn shook his head. "I'm going to have to actually watch that show," he muttered under his breath. Sighing, he looked back up to the two men. "Trust me, this is for real. All of it. Veronica and one of our own agents are being held captive and we need some help to recover them."

"All right, making the supreme jump in logic and say we buy all this," Duncan began. "What do you need from us?"

"First," Vaughn said as he looked over to Logan. "We need you to give up your ownership on the house belonging to the grandmother of someone called…Weevil?"

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? I'm supposed to give up a prime real estate location?"

"We've read the reports," Vaughn said. "That place is barely worth the price you paid for it. We're willing to double the offer."

Logan shook his head. "Sorry, no can do. It's a point of pride for me."

"Pride?"

"Yeah, Brownie burnt down my house, I buy his grandma's. Sort of a Circle of Life thing."

"Dude, come on," Duncan urged. "This is Veronica we're talking about."

"And yet I'm paralyzed with little caring."

"I'll make this simpler," Vaughn calmly stated as he leaned forward. "You help us out and in return we won't take away your money. How's that?"

Logan's smirk froze on his face. "You…you can't do that."

"Actually, yeah, we can," Vaughn off-handily said. "We're the government, we can do most anything we want. Now, we're making you a decent offer and personally, I'd take it. Because the alternative is that you're going to be discovering the lovely opportunities available in the fast food and retail industries."

Logan slowly licked his lips. "You know, I'm almost positive there's a lawsuit in all this."

"And I'm positive the Patriot Act can be invoked," the agent replied, refusing to give any ground.

Logan bit his lip and finally threw up his hands. "Fine, fine. I bow to the juggernaut, you happy?" He shook his head and rubbed at his face. "You think I would have enough with my mother killing herself and my father in jail for killing my girlfriend who, oh yes, he was sleeping with!"

Duncan snorted. "Hey, don't play the horrible parent card with me, buddy. My parents actually thought I was capable of killing my own sister and hired a guy to confess to the murder and thus completely screw up the investigation. And, oh yeah, your dad also tried to kill my girlfriend."

Vaughn was quiet for a moment before speaking. "My dad was killed by a KGB agent who was the mother of my girlfriend. When I thought she was dead, I married another woman who turned out to be a double agent who killed a few people and whose own mother was an agent who killed her own husband and I ended up putting a couple of bullets into my wife's chest."

The two teens stared at him, then at each other. "He wins," Duncan stated.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The room in the small office building was tight as Vaughn, Duncan and Logan entered. Jack was leaning over a table, looking over the shoulders of Mac and Marshall, who were working at a pair of laptops. Keith was sitting at the other end of the table, tapping his fingers on the surface. Weevil was leaning on the far wall, observing everyone and two other people, both Vaughn's age, were there, a man and a very attractive woman.

Logan looked at Mac and rolled his eyes. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. She has her own Willow now?"

"Without magic," Mac was quick to retort. "And I'm straight."

Vaughn nodded as he made introductions. "That's Marshall Flinkman, my friend Eric Weiss, Nadia, she's Sydney's sister and Jack Bristow, her father."

Vaughn looked them over and crossed his arms. "Well, after seeing this, I'm so grateful I don't pay taxes."

"For once, richie, I'm with you," Weevil called out.

Duncan brushed past his friend to look to Keith. "How are we doing finding Veronica?"

"We've got a good idea of her location," Jack answered. "But we need a way to get inside without being discovered."

"Which isn't going to be easy," Weiss piped up. "Sark's smart and always has a sharp eye out for any agents."

"Which is why we won't use agents for the distraction," Keith said, nodding toward Weevil.

The biker's face frowned. "Hold up. My boys are good in a ruckus but we ain't soldiers. I didn't get into this to be cannon fodder."

"Aw, come on," Logan said as he lounged in a chair and put his cocky smirk on his face. "It's not like there isn't an endless supply of the Latino nation you can recruit."

Weevil gave him an ugly look that was shared by Nadia. "I happen to be from a Latino nation," she said in her light accent. "So I'd appreciate you keeping such references to yourself."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Why's that? Bring back memories of your days as a maid before you lucked into spy school?"

Nadia was out of her seat and her foot was already shooting out. It hooked behind a leg of Logan's chair and pulled. He yelped as he fell onto the floor and Nadia had a heel at his throat. Her eyes were cold as she kept the pressure up. "Think of this as payback for the maids you've had before," she coolly said before backing up.

Weiss leaned in to whisper to Vaughn. "God, I'm loving this woman."

"Buddy," Vaughn whispered back. "Her father is a: our boss and b: a stone-cold killer."

"That just makes it hotter."

Vaughn just rolled his eyes. "Dude, you've totally lost it."

Logan sat up and rubbed his throat. "Okay…bodily harm is not the best way to woo me to help you out."

"We don't have much time," Jack said in a clipped tone. "We are going in blind, which is never good. We don't know how many people Sark may have-----"

"We will soon," Keith stated.

Jack peered at him. "How?"

Keith just gave him that nice little smile. "Oh, I've got my own special operatives…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Wallace tried to keep his nerves steady as he rolled the cart down the hotel hallways. He was clad in the uniform of a bellhop and he didn't want to know how Keith had gotten it. I swear, if it wasn't for you, Ronnie…Man, Dave Chapelle would make a whole routine out of this. He came to the suite he'd been looking for and knocked on the door.

It opened to reveal a burly looking man in a dark suit who gave Wallace a quick once-over with cold eyes. "Yeah?" he muttered.

Wallace gave his best smile. "Hey, room service!" He moved to push the cart in but the man blocked it. "We didn't order," he stated.

Wallace frowned. "You sure?" He tried to move the cart a bit so one tray was at the forefront. "I got three turkey meals, two steaks, six salads and a small pizza here."

"I said, we didn't order," the man stated. "We only have five people."

"Who is it?" a British voice echoed from the room.

"I'm getting rid of him," the man at the door called back. He pushed the tray away. "I said, we did not order."

Wallace held up a piece of paper and then turned it over and his eyes brightened. "Oh, damn! I thought it was 969, but it's 696!" He laughed and shook his head. "Damn, sorry, bro." He pulled the cart back and walked off. He heard the door shut and immediately pushed the cart as fast as he could to the elevators, wanting to get as far away from that room as possible.

As he did, Wallace's mind was filled with concern. If that guy's half as nasty as his voice, Ronnie, I'm hoping to hell you're okay.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I am so not okay," Veronica muttered as she shuffled in her chair. Her hands were bound behind her, cuffed together with strips of plastic. Similar bonds were at her ankles and tight belts looped around her waist to make sure she was stuck to the chair. Sydney was seated next to her in exactly the same predicament. Both were now clad in oversized jumpsuits and were barefooted.

"At least Sark had us dressed," Sydney noted.

"So he's a not a perv on top of being a killer and mercenary. I feel sooo much better," Veronica remarked. She took a deep breath and glanced at Sydney. "Tell me we're getting out of this. Lie if you have to."

"We're going to get out of this."

"And you're lying, right?"

"No. I've been in situations a lot worse than this."

Veronica just raised an eyebrow but Sydney gave her a reassuring smile. She could tell that despite Veronica's wit, the teenager was scared. She was in a situation far more severe than any she'd been in before and it was obviously pulling at her nerves. Sydney had indeed been in such situations countless times over the years and she still felt some fear at them. Keeping Veronica from panicking was the only way she could ensure the young woman would be in shape when the time came to make their move.

The door opened and Sark entered. His jacket was off and his sleeves were rolled up as he gave the two women a nod. "Sydney. I trust you're as comfortable as possible?"

"Go to hell."

"I probably will, inevitably," Sark nonchantly replied. "But at least I'll be well rested and rich when I get there."

"Are we here for a reason or are you just making this kidnapping up as you go?" Veronica demanded.

Sark smiled thinly. "I am simply waiting for my employers to get into contact with me. From there, your fate will be in their hands."

"And who are your employers?" Veronica pressed.

Sark's smile remained still. "I'm sorry but I have rules about keeping a confidence."

"Unless you get a better offer," Sydney noted.

Sark gave a half-shrug. "Well, you know my loyalties are flexible. However, one cannot be a professional without some standards. For example, my men were more than willing to have you be tied up stark naked but I insisted you be clothed."

"We were just remarking on your wonderful manners," Veronica sarcastically said. "Maybe ABC can get you for "The Bachelor: 'Psycho Killer Edition.'"

Sark actually chuckled and looked to Sydney. "I must say, this young woman is quite the firecracker, Sydney. I'd suggest recruiting her someday but sadly, I doubt either of you will have a chance for that."

Veronica tried to keep her face calm but knew she wasn't totally succeeding. "I don't suppose there's any chance you'll be willing to tell us just what the deal is here?"

Sark put his hands behind his back. "You must have watched too many old movie serials. I don't do that sort of thing. And even if I did, I'm not the planner here, I'm merely the…" He thought about it. "On-site operator as it were."

Veronica's eyes angrily narrowed at him. "Then answer this. Why the bus? Why kill all those people? We had no idea what was going on there, there was no reason to do that!" Her voice cracked, betraying her anger at what Sark had done.

The man was silent and Sydney could swear he actually seemed…sorry. "Yes…yes, that was an unfortunate incident. I didn't want to happen, truly."

Both Sydney and Veronica stared at him in surprise. "You…what?" the agent asked, her eyes wide.

Sark sighed. "I had asked a couple of my men to follow the bus, to tail and try to find information about who was on so we may be able to keep an eye on them in private and see what they knew." He scowled suddenly. "However, they saw the bus driver speaking to a police officer at that gas station and leapt to the wrong conclusions. So, they took it upon themselves to ambush it on the hill and force it off the cliff."

Both women were stunned by this revelation. "What…what happened to these guys?" Veronica quietly asked.

Sark just stared at her with hard eyes and Veronica swallowed hard. "Okay," Sydney slowly stated. "So you're somewhat off the hook for that. But you're still in it with Cell 17."

Sark just shrugged. "One does what one must to live, my dear." He moved to the door and threw them a small smile. "I do hope you can still live by that idea." He then exited.

Veronica slowly turned her head to look at Sydney. "So…any ideas?"

Sydney pursed her lips. "All we can do is hope my dad and the team can find us quickly."

"Ah," Veronica said. "So, we're counting on the resources and intelligence of the CIA?"

"Pretty much."

"Great. We're so dead."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Wallace leaned over Marshall's shoulder as the young man brought photos onto his computer screen. "That little camera on the tray did its job?" the black youth asked.

"Yep," Marshall said as he showed the photos of the room. They weren't the best quality but they did give a good view of the room and the men inside.

"You said there were five?" Jack pressed.

Wallace nodded. He had changed out of the bellhop uniform and now wore jeans and a dark shirt. "Yep. Not counting Veronica and her pal."

Still, that's five well-trained and armed men," Vaughn said. "We'd have to take them down fast in order to save the girls."

"So, we're going in?" Keith pressed, her tension obviously high.

Jack nodded as he looked over the group. "Let's go over the plan."

Marshall grinned and leaned in toward Mac. "He loves doing this. He's so damn cool at it."

Mac shuffled in her chair. "Let's just hope it works."

"Don't worry, we always pull it off. Not textbook perfect, of course."

"Oh. Then it's perfect for Veronica."

Sitting in his chair nearby, Logan rolled his eyes and reflected on the fact that if his father had received a script like this, he wouldn't have given it the dignity of using it to line a birdcage.