Chapter Eight: The Attack
Sydney and Vaughn finally stepped out of the conference room. They walked in silence until they found Carter and Isabelle.
"Isabelle, Carter, can we talk to you?" Sydney asked. Her two children got up and followed her and Vaughn into an empty room. "Your father and I have been offered positions here. We thought we'd get your opinion before we made a decision.
"So you're going to work here? As an agent? Like go on missions where you almost get killed?" Isabelle asked.
"Sweetheart, we wouldn't be doing any field work." Sydney said.
"Well… I guess if you guys aren't in any more danger… that would be ok." Carter said after a few minutes of silence.
"Are you serious?" Isabelle shrieked. "You're practically giving them permission to go out and get themselves killed!"
"Bella, we've just been kidnapped by our own grandmother! I don't think we can put our parents in any more danger!" Carter said, raising his voice.
After a few more minutes of silence, Sydney was about to suggest that they talk bout it over lunch when Isabelle spoke up. "I guess he's right."
Back in her hideout in the Ural Mountains, Irina smiled. She had been listening to the whole scene play out from a bug embedded in Isabelle's skin. "Good. We can now control their emotions."
"Well technically, we aren't controlling their emotions." A short man with curly red hair said. "We're merely influencing the brain cells into thinking that they feel more relaxed."
Irina ignored the remark and turned to Dr. Mittelwork. "Start Stage 2. I want to have all of Isabelle's preferences changed by the end of the day, to keep them… on their toes."
The doctor nodded and flipped a switch. He returned to his seat and turned up the sound.
"Let's go get some lunch." Sydney said. "We can go get some Mexican food."
"Actually, mom, can we get Chinese?" Isabelle asked, rubbing the back of her neck.
Sydney stared at her daughter. "Are you sure? You've always hated Chinese food."
"Yeah, I'm sure. I really want some egg rolls." Isabelle said. Suddenly she twirled around to face her parents. "Wait, if you're working here, does that mean that we have to move?"
"Isabelle, I know this is a huge change, but after we get this organization shut down, we can go back to Arizona." Sydney said.
"That's so not fair! How do you know it won't take years… decades even to stop some stupid organization?" Isabelle asked. "You're going to ruin my LIFE if we move!" she hollered before pushing open the door and running off.
"Isabelle!" Sydney shouted.
"I'll go talk to her." Carter said, walking toward his sister.
Sydney stood there frustrated, confused, and concerned when she felt Vaughn's arms wrap around her body.
"Hey, it's going to be ok. We'll work this out." He whispered into her ear.
Sydney's eyes began to water. His voice was just too soft, too sweet to actually be real. His touch was too comforting for him to actually be here. Tears began to slide down Sydney's face as she began to believe that the couple of days were just a dream.
"Syd what's wrong?" Vaughn asked, turning her to face him. Her eyes were full of fear as he pulled her into a tight hug.
"This… this can't be real." She finally sobbed out. "You… you're alive…. you can't be alive…"
"Sh… Syd, I'm really here. I'm alive. Baby, it's ok, I'm here." Vaughn said, trying to comfort her.
"No, no, no, no." Sydney said. "All of my dreams were like this. Any minute now, you're going to disappear and I'm going to be alone again."
"Syd, I'm not going anywhere. I'm not going to leave you again. I'm going to stay here." Vaughn stroked her hair.
"Promise?" Sydney asked, sounding like a 5-year-old.
"I promise Sydney." Vaughn whispered.
He wiped away the tears from her eyes and kissed her. She buried her head in his chest and they stood there, in an odd sort of peace, finally back in each other's arms.
"I was trying to be strong." Sydney whispered. "I didn't want the kids to see me crying…"
"I know. It's ok. I'm here." Vaughn said.
"You're here." She repeated, hugging him tighter. She momentarily forgot about her worry about the kid's strange reactions and just focused on how good it was to be back in Michael Vaughn's arms.
The shrill sound of the telephone ringing startled Arvin Sloane out of his reverie. He quickly picked it up and cleared his throat.
"Arvin Sloane."
"Mr. Sloane, we have successfully finished Stage 1. We are now proceeding with Stage 2. It should be complete within the hour." The voice on the other end said. "We're almost done changing her 5 main preferences."
"Good. That should be enough to keep them busy for awhile. What about Mrs. Vanderfield?"
"We sent her to L.A. as soon as we heard from Peyton about France. She should arrive within the hour."
"Perfect. I'll alert you when she arrives." Sloane said as he hung up.
Jack and Dixon walked into the interrogation room. Lauren Reed and Julian Sark were chained to the chairs, unconscious.
"I think I can handle this." Jack said to Dixon.
Dixon held his gaze for a moment before nodding. "I'll be with Marshall examining the files from France."
Jack took a large syringe and injected Lauren with the liquid. As she slowly opened her eyes, Jack took another syringe and stabbed her in the neck.
Lauren's bloodcurdling scream echoed in the cell. Sark turned his head toward her as he struggled to wake.
Jack rolled up his sleeves and reached for another instrument. He was prepared to torture both of them until their throats were so sore from screaming that they were coughing up blood. He was ready to do anything to cause them as much pain as they had inflicted on his daughter.
Anything to find his ex-wife.
"What have we got so far Marshall?" Dixon asked as he walked into
"From the research on these files, we know the main players in Prophet Five. Sark, Lauren, Irina, some guy named Dr. Mittelwork, and an unknown benefactor that has been funding their experiments. They seemed very interested in genetic mutation. There's a document in here that says that they're successfully mutated a human being so that they're immune to a series of diseases like chicken pox, measles, and even the flu. It's amazing… insane ofcourse, but still a fascinating idea…" Marshall said.
"Do we have any idea what they're working on right now?" Dixon asked.
"No, not at the moment. I still have to decode about 5 more pages but I doubt something that important would be encrypted in something this easy to decrypt." Marshall said.
Dixon turned to the other 2 people in the room. "Weiss and Nadia, I want you two to start looking into what they might be working on and who this mystery benefactor is. And if you find Sydney and Vaughn, ask them what their decision is."
A shower of bullets broke through the glass panels near the entrance of the JTF center. A chorus of screams erupted as people dropped to the ground for cover. A few agents drew their guns but where gunned down.
The masked invaders headed directly to where Isabelle, Carter, and their friends where waiting. A man grabbed Isabelle's arm and began to drag her out.
"Help!" she screamed. "Mom!" She kicked at her attackers to no avail. One of the men squeezed her wrist tightly.
Nadia and Weiss grabbed their guns and ran over to Isabelle's aid. Nadia shot the masked man in the arm. He immediately let Isabelle drop to the floor and rushed out of the building. There were too many people in their line of fire, so Weiss holstered his gun and bent to help the frightened teen up.
The whole situation was over within minutes, much to everyone's surprise. The intruders rushed out of the building after only 5 minutes. Vaughn and Sydney soon emerged. Isabelle ran to her mother's arms and started to cry.
The building was buzzing with activity, as people checked for wounded and dead. Surprisingly, the men had only used tranquilizer darts, so no one was seriously injured.
Dixon walked into the room where the civilians were gathered. "I'm sorry if this is going to cause any type of inconvenience, but we're going to have to detain you here. We need to make sure that no bugs or trackers were planted on you during the raid."
"Sir, um… I have the results to the test you ran on the civilians." Marshall said as he rushed to keep up with Dixon. "Ah, it's not good. First, we've found something implanted on each of their hands. I'm still running some tests on that but it seems to be some sort of tracking device. All of the civilians have one, and so do Vaughn and Sydney." He paused to take in a huge breath. "Second, something's up with Isabelle. We've found 2 bugs on her. One implanted under her skin on the back of her neck and the other on her wrist."
"Get Isabelle to somewhere secure. Make sure you have guards with her. I don't want anything else to happen to her." Dixon ordered.