A/N: I am SO SORRY for taking so long to update. Following Spring Break came AP testing and I've had projects and term papers, I hope I can get another update before Memorial Day, but unfortunately I can't make any guarantees. But I hope you will all still review, because reviews make me even more eager to write!
SVU-Watcher14: Wow, you wrote a lot, but I loved it! NEVER apologize for reviewing! I loved every one of them. By the way, I love SVU too!
Lady Prongs: I hope now I won't die! Please…? After all, if I die, how can I update? Hehehe.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Emily Dickinson
Chapter 14
Sark slammed the door to the room loudly, causing Sydney to awake abruptly from her uneasy slumber and blink rapidly at the harsh lights in the room. The manila folder still sat untouched on the counter out of Sydney's reach.
"I have been more than accommodating in giving you time to think. Tell me, Agent Bristow, what have you decided?"
Sydney met his gaze evenly. "I don't know."
Sark stared back at Sydney and looked deep into her eyes. He could tell she was lying. "Well that's unfortunate." Sark stood up and reached into a cabinet and pulled out a small vial of clear liquid and a syringe.
"You have undoubtedly met with various conversational tools I'm sure, but I would be willing to wager that you have not met this one," Sark said as he filled the syringe. "This drug triggers all the nerves in your body at the same time in an application of pressure that is equivalent to a prick of a needle but multiplied thousands of times throughout your body. So I am giving you one last chance, Agent Bristow, to answer my question. Where did you hide the Rambaldi artifact?"
"Brazil," Sydney answered quickly, but her shadow of a smile revealed the truth as Sark plunged the needle into her arm. Sydney closed her eyes slightly at the force of the needle and the coldness of the liquid.
"I'll give you a minute," Sark said as he left the room. Sark expectantly found Lauren watching the situation through the glass.
"The Covenant went through extreme measures before to convince Sydney she was someone else and she still resisted. This is child's play," Lauren said, her angry eyes turning on Sark.
"We're not authorized to do a full interrogation," Sark stated.
"I'll give you thirty minutes. If she doesn't talk we're doing it my way."
"Lauren, I really don't think it's a good idea to be revealing yourself when you are still working under cover, with Agent Vaughn no less."
"It's my risk and I wouldn't compromise it for anything."
"Sir, the helicopter is ready," the young man said nervously as he found himself back in his boss's office where the smell of smoke still lingered.
"Excellent," the voice replied, but in a tone that was higher sounding then normal. His boss's voice actually sounded feminine.
"Sir?" the boy asked nervously. The chair turned around and the boy saw his boss for the first time. "You're a woman."
"Congratulations you've passed Sex Ed. 101." She pulled her gun from her leather jacket and shot him dead. The boy's eyes were left open in an expression of confusion and surprise as she stepped over him and proceeded to the door.
"Where is my daughter?" Jack demanded, his gun still in his hand, as well as the gun that rested at his temple.
"You're not surprised I know who you are?" Jay tantalized.
"It's a small world."
"Indeed," Jay said with a smile. "By the way, how's Irina these days?" Jack froze at the mention of his ex-wife's name. Who is this woman? But Jack held his surprise from his face.
"I wouldn't know," Jack said as he swirled around diagonally and pointed her gun to the ceiling. The bullet fired and landed harmlessly in the plaster with a small black dot to mark its entry as a resting place like a small black bug. Jack quickly maneuvered her arm around her back and locked her in a full nelson.
"Still quick to the point," Jay gasped threw her teeth. "Except when it comes to Irina."
"How the hell do you know Irina?" Jack asked as he tightened his grip slightly that made her gasp.
"You don't remember? We met at a party, in '83 I believe. I was only eighteen at the time, and a new recruit of the KGB. I worked with Irina a few times during my training." The trip down memory did nothing to jog Jack's memory, and he became angry.
"Where is my daughter?" Jack demanded once again as he tightened her arm hard enough to get a gasp.
"The Covenant has her," Jay grunted.
"Where?"
"I don't know."
"One more pull and I can dislocate your shoulder."
"I don't know. I'm not high enough in the Covenant to know."
"Give me the name of someone who will."
"No way." Jack gave her arm a hard yank and he felt the satisfactory crack vibrate through her body as he dislocated her arm. She simultaneously cried out in pain as he reached for her other arm.
"Give me the name of someone in the Covenant who knows where my daughter is. It's going to be hard for you to help them anyway with two injured arms," Jack growled.
"There's someone in the LA office that works for the Covenant," Jay confessed but her pained expression turned into a semi-grin. "You'll want to check Laura's Ring if you want to know the answer."
Jack was about to respond when a low beeping sound caught his ear. Jack pushed Jay to the floor so that he was lying behind her. She may have had the most direct view of the source of the noise, but Jack knew what it was from where he was laying. Meanwhile, Jay's hand reached across the floor to her discarded gun. Just as Jack was about to stand up, he noticed Jay's movement and made a quick rush to the door. The sound of Jay firing was nothing but a noise, as the shots missed him completely. Unfortunately, just as he reached the bottom of the steps, a great burst of fire shot through the bedroom door, burning everything in its path.
Sydney was in agony. The drug that Sark had injected her with was everything he said it would be. Tingles of pain traveled all through her body causing nerves to vibrate and react painfully to the drug. She also had to admit that she had not felt anything like this before. God dammit, I hate it when Sark is right.
Sark himself walked in a few minutes later. He reached into the cupboard and pulled out a small vial of clear liquid. "Do you have an answer for me, Mrs. Bristow?" Sydney bit her lip as another line of pain shot through her legs, but she refused to answer. "I can stop the pain. Just give me an answer." Sydney however, kept silent.
Sark leaned toward her, keeping his face only inches from her. "You're stubbornness is going to kill you one day," he said before stepping away, and leaving Sydney alone once again.
Vaughn walked into his house at two in the morning with no more leads than he had before. Sark had played his cards well. For once Vaughn wished that the British bastard had screwed up so that Sydney could be back home and he could be the one sitting in a jail cell, or better yet, dead.
At a weary pace, Vaughn made his way up the stairs and into the bedroom, but he was surprised to find it empty. A red light was blinking animatedly in the dark room, revealing the location of the answering machine. With stumbling fingers he pushed the listen button and Weiss's voice filled the room.
"Damn it, Mike, I better see you at work tomorrow, no earlier than noon. Staying at the office till all hours of the night will not help us find Sydney. I mean it. Now go home and try to get some sleep." There was a slight pause before Weiss continued. "She'll be fine, Mike, she's a fighter."
"Yeah, yeah, she is," Vaughn mumbled to himself as he took off his shoes and loosened his tie.
"Hey sweetie it's me. I'm sorry I didn't get to tell you earlier, but I was called to Langley at the last minute. If you want to call me, call my cell. I'm not sure how long this will take, but I miss you already. I love you." Vaughn pulled a loose white tee-shirt over his head as he fell back onto the bed feeling kind of relieved that his wife wasn't there. He didn't want to argue the fact that the only thing on his mind was Sydney at the moment.
So many worries and emotions were colliding all at once. His mind instantly shifted back to the day that she disappeared. He had had hope up until the moment that the test results came back. That one moment of revelation nearly killed him. He was determined not to let his hope break this time. He was going to find her.
Vaughn turned to his left side and found his eyes slowly causing his vision of the empty side of the bed to dissolve into darkness. Sydney's form seemed to magically appear in front of him.
"Hi," Vaughn said with a smile as light streamed in through the windows in a symbol of morning.
"Hi," she responded, her voice quiet and downcast.
"What's wrong?"
"Why didn't you tell me, Vaughn?" Sydney asked, her eyes filling up with tears. "Why did you betray me?"
"Sydney, I didn't!" Vaughn protested.
"You told her. You put me in the hands of the Covenant. I hate you, Michael Vaughn. I hate you!"
Vaughn's eyes shot open as he focused on his slowly lightening room. He had only been asleep for a few hours, but no dream had stood with more vividness in his mind. He dragged his fingertips down his rough face. Guilt overcame him as he realized how he might have left things with Sydney. Here he was doing the most despicable thing possible, at least in her mind, and he may never get a chance for forgiveness. I will get to make things right, he corrected. When I find her, I will tell her the truth. I will set things right. When…
"You've had your chance, Sark, it's my turn," Lauren said as she licked her lips and made her way towards the door, but Sark wiped her hand away from the knob.
"Our employer will be here tomorrow morning, we can wait," Sark suggested.
"I've waited as long as necessary. I will get that information from Sydney Bristow, if it's the last thing I do." Lauren pushed her way past Sark and walked calmly into the room.
Sydney's eyes were closed when Lauren opened the room. Her eyes seemed to be forced shut as if she was a child who was forced to sit through a horror movie her older brother and friends were watching. Lauren knew however that it was an expression of pain. There was no one else that Lauren wanted to see in pain more than Sydney Bristow, but she had control. Control was part of her job.
Not at all quietly, Lauren reached for a cup out of the cabinet, filled it with water, and through it into Sydney's restless face. Her eyes opened abruptly as she sputtered and gasped at the coldness and suddenness of the splashing of water. Sydney blinked rapidly as she tried to free her eyes of dripping water and focus them on the person standing in front of her.
"Lauren?" Sydney asked in surprise. A look of hope appeared in her eyes. "Is Vaughn here?" Lauren felt a smirk arise on her blank face. She was all too willing to remove that hope from her eyes and reveal to her that Michael Vaughn was not her knight in shining armor.
"No, it's just me," Lauren said as she set the cup down on the counter. Sydney analyzed Lauren's lingering and deliberate movements in realization. She wasn't dressed for a rescue mission, nor did she seem to be any hurry. Lauren Reed was Covenant.
"How can you do this? How can you do this to your country, to Vaughn?" Sydney asked in anger.
"My mother was recruited into the Covenant when she was twenty-five," she said walking around Sydney and taking the seat Sark once occupied. "At this time, the Alliance was still strong, and the KGB was beginning its decline. The Covenant meant nothing at that time, but it grew as government agents from various countries came together and formed the Trust. The Covenant wasn't looking to make money off of arms sells or place itself in the hindsight of the CIA like the Alliance. Our goal from the beginning has been Rambaldi. We had heard of Sloane's research and the Prophecy and we understood that grand things could come from it.
"We were as disappointed as the CIA was surprised that Sloane gave up the Firebomb, but we knew as Sloane did that Rambaldi's Endgame was much greater. My mother was under instruction by the Covenant to marry Senator Reed and keep up to date on the NSA's involvement with Rambaldi. When I was thirteen, I discovered my mother's secret, and I followed in her footsteps when I turned eighteen. Now you know the rest of the story."
"And Vaughn?" Sydney said hoping that if she kept Lauren talking that she could postpone whatever Lauren had in store for her.
Lauren's smile deepened. "That will be for another day." Lauren stood up and bent down as she opened one of the cabinets that were located close to the floor. She removed a black device that resembled a club, except the end of it was flattened out like a metal detector and various controls were located on one side. Sydney immediately knew what it was.
"Now, Agent Bristow, where is the location of the Rambaldi device?"
Sark watched Lauren remove the taser from the bottom cabinet and approach Sydney with it. He could hear Lauren's muffled voice inquire about the Rambaldi device. When Lauren didn't answer, Lauren opened up the first few buttons of Sydney's shirt and placed the circular end to her stomach. An expression of pain darkened Sydney's features as the shock forced her body up against the restraints.
Lauren held her position for no more than five seconds before she removed it and asked her question again. Sydney remained silent every time, with her head moving slowly back and forth after every shock as if she were trying to clear her head. Sark watched as each increment became longer and no questions were asked. Finally, Sark had enough. Sydney wasn't going to talk no matter how long Lauren kept this up. His boss's request had been for Sydney to be in fairly good condition when he arrived, and he was going to follow that request.
Sark reached for the door and was surprised when he didn't find it turn easily in his hands. He jiggled the knob harder this time, but to no avail. Lauren locked the door. He moved back to the window and began pounding on it, shouting her name, but Lauren never looked up once.