A/N: Yeah! It hasn't been a whole month since I updated, aren't you proud? And guess what! Chapter 17 shouldn't be too far behind. Thank God for Summer! Thanks to all who reviewed. You're the people who make me look good! :)

Eyghon: I'm sorry that my lack of reviewing made you lose track of my story! I'll try not to let it happen again. Oh and by the way (grins mischievously) It's not Irina…

Natalie: I didn't mean for Weiss to be nosey. He's just more like a concerned friend left out of the loop. Please don't be mad at him. I love Weiss…

Star16: Thank you! I thought that would be amusing!

Chapter 16

            The whole conference room was silent. Everyone had looked at Vaughn as if he was crazy when he announced that he thought that Lauren was the mole. But now the passport and the ammunition were resting on the table closest to Dixon and the room seemed to be waiting for some sort of signal on what to do next.

            Dixon was the first to speak. "We can't conclude anything for sure, but to be on the cautious side we're going to assume that Lauren Reed is not the mole. We'll get surveillance footage and confirm flight times before we decide on our next plan of action. Agent Vaughn." Vaughn looked up at Dixon's address. "Where did your wife say she was headed?"

            "Langley, but a call to Washington proved that there was no such meeting taking place," Vaughn said unhappily.

            "I see. Well once again we must not jump to conclusions. We will not act until we have confirmation. Dismissed."

            "You seem surprised, Sark," she said as her heels clicked against the tile in rhythmic step.

            "Well honestly, after K-Directorate fell we were under the assumption that you were…indisposed."

            She smiled at this. "That's one way of putting it. Now, am I to assume that my orders have been followed?"

            Sark gave a subtle glance at Lauren who continued to walk with her eyes facing forward. "Yes."

            "Good." They continued down the hallway until they stopped in front of the large one-way mirror that over looked Sydney's room. Sydney's eyes were closed, probably to drown out the harsh fluorescent light the beamed down on her eyes. McKenas Cole whistled.

            "Damn, you can torture that girl till her blood's run dry, but she would still look hot." She nodded thoughtfully before breaking away from the group.

            "Wait here," was all she said before she stepped into the room. She stepped towards Sydney's still figure while she double-checked the restraints. The collar to her shirt was slightly open and a harsh red mark tainted her otherwise perfect skin tone. She would have to talk to Sark later.

            She leaned over her face so that the light was no longer in Sydney's eyes. Sydney blinked. It took a moment for Sydney's eyes to adjust, but the first thing she saw were those large lips, painted a shiny red.

            "Anna."

            "We've confirmed that Lauren Reed is indeed Covenant," Dixon announced. "Locations as well as phone calls have confirmed that Lauren has been in touch with members of the Covenant. Unfortunately, we do not know where Lauren currently is at the moment, but there's a possibility that she is with Sydney. If that is the case, we need to tread slowly. The Covenant has kidnapped one of our agents and we're not about to turn this into a hostage situation. Lauren Reed is not to become aware that we know of her situation."

            "Agent Vaughn," Dixon said turning to him. "That means that if Lauren contacts you, not only will you have to inform us immediately so that Marshall can do a trace, but you have to pretend that everything is normal."

            Vaughn looked down at his hands. "I understand."

            "In the meantime, our focus will be Sydney Bristow. We'll deal with Lauren Reed when the time arises. Keep us updated, Agent Vaughn." The room rose and filed out of the office. Jack stayed behind and called Agent Vaughn to him.

            "This is going to sound odd coming from me, but I need to know. How are you?" Jack asked him. Vaughn was overcome with confusion. There was no concern or sympathy in his voice or face, just understanding.

            "The only reason I ask this Agent Vaughn is because I need to be assured that the safety of my daughter is the only thing on your mind. Once we get Sydney back, I will help you destroy Lauren if need be, but I need your assurance that you can keep a level-head in the game."

            Vaughn was even more confused than he had been a moment ago. Had Jack Bristow actually said that he would willingly help him? Vaughn looked at this man again. It actually made sense. These were the words from a broken-hearted man. He knew about deception. He knew what sort of contradicting feelings were running through his head at this moment. Vaughn wanted to believe that Lauren was innocent, but he also wanted to believe that she was guilty. Sydney had been a large part of his heart and when she left, she took his heart with her. Now that she was back, he had an overwhelming desire at times to hold her or kiss her like he used to.

            Now that it had been proven that Lauren had deceived him, he wanted to torture her and ask her why she had ruined his life. Why she had taken Sydney from him and pretended to love him for almost two years. Why she had betrayed him for the Covenant. When he was done, all he wanted was the satisfaction of seeing her dead, the life gone from her eyes and her face pale. The urge to kill at that moment was so prominent that he began to scare himself. Vaughn swallowed.

            "Of course," he answered. "Anything for Sydney." Jack gave him the typical disapproving look that Vaughn would see in the halls anytime he caught Jack's eye, but walked out of the room without another word. Weiss was waiting outside the room when Vaughn came out.

            "Hey man, what was that about?"

            "Nothing," Vaughn said dismissively as he headed up to pick up his phone.

            Vaughn pushed a three-digit number and waited. "Marshall, this is Agent Vaughn. I need you to trace the location of the phone I'm about to call…Thank you." Vaughn hung up.

            Weiss looked up at Vaughn slightly alarmed. "No Mike, don't do it. Just wait."

            "Sydney's life is at stake, I'm not waiting any longer," Vaughn said as typed in Lauren's phone number.

            "What will you tell her so she won't suspect something's up?"

            "I have no idea."

            "It's nice to see you again," Anna responded, her smile unusually large. Sydney didn't say a word.

            "I would ask how your stay is, but I can tell from the condition your in that it has been less than pleasant." Sydney said nothing. It had been a long time since she had seen Anna Espinosa. She couldn't really be all that surprised that Anna was involved in the Rambaldi expedition. She had to have the same level of curiosity about Rambaldi as Sydney had since from having collected a good amount of his artifacts. Anna probably stole them following the collapse of K-Directorate and then joined numerous others

in the quest for Rambaldi.

            Anna leaned over and put her lips so that they were only centimeters away from Sydney's ear, meanwhile Sydney felt Anna's hands trace over the restraint across her left wrist.

            "Give me ten minutes to keep Sark and Lauren distracted," Anna said before pulling away. Then Anna swiftly slammed her hand across Sydney's cheek before making her way to the door. Sydney moved her head back to its original resting place as the burning of Anna's hand tingled her check. As she did so she felt the restraint on her left hand give with little force. Sydney's eyes widened as she realized what had happened. Anna Espinosa had just let her go.

            Vaughn leaned back in his chair staring at his phone. Lauren hadn't answered her phone. He'd left some message about how he couldn't find a pair of cufflinks that he needed for a night out to dinner with an old friend and that he was wondering if she knew where they were. In actuality he knew exactly where they were, but he needed some reason for her to call him back. Marshall couldn't get a trace on the phone unless she picked it up, and unfortunately that meant that he had to play the waiting game whether he liked it or not.

            He knew why Weiss had been worried about Vaughn's idea. If he didn't come up with a good reason for him to call her, than she may become suspicious, but Vaughn didn't feel like he was doing enough. They weren't getting anywhere in their investigation. If Vaughn didn't get some lead soon he knew he would do something drastic like Jack had. Almost on cue, his phone rang, and Vaughn hit button number two on his phone to signal Marshall to trace and then picked up the phone.

            "Vaughn," he answered, but his heart was racing.

            "Is Sydney there?" a young woman asked nervously. Alarms were going off in his head. Why was a woman calling his extension looking for Sydney?

            "Sydney's not here," Vaughn responded slowly, "but can I ask who you are?"

            "Who am I speaking to?" she sounded cautious, as if she didn't believe that he knew Sydney.

            "Agent Michael Vaughn of the CIA," Vaughn responded hoping that the woman would start opening up.

            "Michael Vaughn," she repeated.

            "How did you get this number?" Vaughn asked, getting suspicious about this woman. The woman however fired back a question of her own.

            "How do you know Sydney?" she asked him.

            Vaughn was angry. "Who are you? And how do you know Sydney?" he fired back.

            "I don't," she said almost sadly before a dial tone filled his ear. Vaughn hung up quickly and rushed to Marshall's office. Marshall was looking over a screen. A large read flashing light had circled the street address of a road somewhere in LA.

            The screen went blank and then a second later full details about the house were disclosed. Vaughn gasped as he read them.

            "Marshall, is there anyway this could be wrong."

            "Certainly, I mean science isn't perfect, but often if there is an error, it's human…"

            Vaughn tuned Marshall's voice out as he reread the name of the owner in disbelief. The call had been made from Sydney Bristow's house.

            Sydney had no idea why Anna Espinosa had decided to set her free. In fact, she was tempted to just stay in the chair thinking that it would be safer if she stayed there, but if Anna truly was giving her a chance to escape, she decided she wouldn't pass it up. There was no clock in the room, so Sydney blindly gauged what she thought ten minutes was before she pulled on the restraint again finally freeing her left arm. With little trouble and little time wasted she freed her right wrist, her stomach, and finally her legs.

            She slid off the chair and steadied herself for a moment as she tried to keep the strength in her legs to remain standing. Then without a second thought she grabbed the folder that was on the counter stuffed it into her shirt, wincing as it scraped her wounds, and opened the door to the room. The white hall was deserted; Anna had come through. Sydney took the hallway at jog so that if she came across anybody she would still have time to react before she ran into them. Sydney didn't have to wait long.

            Two guards rounded the corner in green uniforms. They were talking in a language she guessed to be Czech. Sydney reacted quickly. She kicked one in the stomach and punched the other in the face before he could even draw his gun. The guy she had punched hit the tile hard, but the guard she had kicked had recovered and was going for his gun. She reacted faster however and kicked him across the face knocking him out cold.

            Sydney suddenly felt a page slip out from underneath her shirt, and she grabbed it. Her eyes read over quickly what is said. To her surprise it was a debrief writing by Kendall.

            Agent Sydney Bristow has made contact with me. She informed me that she was tortured and manipulated to believe that she was a woman named Julia Thorne. The intended brainwashing was ineffective and Agent Bristow has confirmed that she is willing to work as a double agent with the Covenant to investigate Simon Walker and the group's general threat to the United States. All information regarding this assignment will be divulged only to FBI Director Martin Landers.

            Sydney felt her blood run cold. She had been a double agent and Kendall had known all along what she was doing. In fact she had known what she was doing all along. Why in the world had she agreed to this, and why couldn't she remember any of it? And why was the FBI involved? Sydney glared at this paper. It answered less questions than it created. Sydney was now desperate to see what the rest of the folder contained, but she couldn't. Not until she got far away from here.

            She stuffed the paper back down her shirt before taking off down the nearest corridor. Occasionally she would meet some people or guards, but none of them gave her much trouble. She was getting a little worried about the security of this place. She could see cameras placed every few feet down various halls but none of them revealed whether or not they were functional. She was inclined to believe that they weren't because it seemed like she had been walking around the building for a good twenty minutes and no alarm had been sounded.

            Suddenly the sound of a gun firing caught her attention as the bullet landed over her head. I spoke to soon.

            Unarmed and soon outnumbered, Sydney took off at a mad dash down the hall. A door began to come into her sight with "Emergency Exit" written in red over the door frame. Sydney ran into it at full force as the door slammed open. Thankfully she was on the ground level, as she took-off zigzagging across the barren landscape to avoid being stuck. The sunlight was a welcome light compared to the harsh fluorescents that occupied her room. Straight in front of her, the sunbeams gleamed off a chain link fence. She looked over her shoulder. Her only choice was to climb it. She climbed quickly and with the agility of a monkey. She never hesitated too long on any one wrung. She could hear the click-clack of bullets landing all around her, but never quite hitting their target. When she reached the top, she swung her leg over and jumped to the other side. She landed painfully in a heap when her legs failed to support the sudden force of her falling.

            Sydney rose quickly to her feet and was about to keep running when she felt the sharp pang of something hit her straight in her neck. Sydney turned and saw Anna's smiling face looking at her, a tranq gun in hand.

            "Revenge is a bitch, isn't it?" Anna asked. Sydney blacked out before she had a chance to answer.