Sark remained motionless, causing a slight feeling of worry to come over Sydney. Had her father really hurt him bad? She knelt down in front of Sark and gently lifted his chin upwards supporting his head with a hand against his cheek.
Sark felt like he was swimming in darkness. He could hear Sydney and everything around him perfectly but his vision was dark. Sark all of the sudden felt something warm on his cheek. Slowly he opened his eyes. Sydney's face slowly came into focus. Why was she so beautiful?
With Sark's piercing blue eyes focused on her, Sydney all of the sudden felt a little self conscious. Why she wasn't sure but she could feel her face starting to turn red. She abruptly pulled her hand away and stood up.
"Well Sark, I did you a favor. Why, I don't know so could you just cooperate with me and tell me what you were doing in the desert with MacLean."
Sark sighed, his body ached with intense pain and he wasn't in the mood to answer petty questions. But as he looked up at Sydney, her expression blank and unmoving, he knew he had to comply. "Well, if you must know, I had been doing a bit of work for MacLean. Nothing big though, just small jobs, though he did have a bigger project going on." Here he paused.
At the mention of MacLean's other project Sydney shifted her weight from one foot to the other.
Anyone else would have dismissed the movement but Sark new better. A smirk spread across his bloody lip. "So, what were you doing in the desert?"
Sydney shifted her body again, though her face remained unreadable. "This isn't about me Sark. I'm not the one who's in CIA custody and being interrogated, so just continue with the story ok?"
"MacLean, as I'm sure you know, is quite a bastard. And quite frankly I got sick of his attitude. I was going to abandon him and tell one of my other…associates about him for a big payoff. That was when he knocked me out in LA and I woke up in the desert, end of story."
"Fine, then this interrogation is over." Sydney said. She turned to leave, opening the door to the cell.
"You know what MacLean was doing, don't you?" Sark said suddenly. "That's why you were there, in the desert."
Sydney kept on walking. Sark was too smart for his own good.
She made her way to her father's office, taking a seat in one of the seats. He was talking on the phone and he nodded to her while writing something down on a piece of paper.
A few minutes passed and Jack hung up the phone, turning to her daughter. "Did you find anything out?"
"Sark wasn't after me." She said simply.
"Are you sure? Then what was he doing in the park?"
Sydney was at that moment wishing she had put more thought into her story because at that moment the park was sounding ridiculous. "Well…"
"You know what, never mind. I don't have time to deal with this. If you think that he's innocent, then we can keep it at that. Dixon's called a meeting ASAP."
With that Jack stood up and started to walk towards the meeting room. Sydney fell instep behind him.
She took her seat in between her father and Vaughn, who glanced at her for a moment then turned away. She turned her attention to Dixon.
Director Marcus Dixon stood at the head of the room, looking a little flustered but as usual his tone of voice came out strong and clear. "Alright everyone, I've called this meeting because a new piece of information concerning Rambaldi and his artifacts has come up. Just this morning I received intel that Scottish mob boss Travis MacLean turned up dead in the Mojave Desert.
At this Sydney gulped.
I found out that MacLean's secret employer had been paying him to do serious excavation work in the Sahara Desert. What this means I'm not sure but there is major evidence that suggests that there is yet another Rambaldi artifact to be found there.
At this everyone in the board room stirred. That is, everyone except Sydney.
"I've decided to dispatch a team but the trip will be a little bit complicated. Nothing can look out of the ordinary since the anonymous backer to MacLean could be anyone. Sydney, I've decided that you will be going but I'm not sure who to pair you with."
"Sark told me that he worked for MacLean previously." Sydney said subconsciously.
"And Sark was cleared from any suspicions correct?"
Sydney nodded wishing she hadn't mentioned it. She had a bad feeling of what was coming next.
"Then Sark should accompany Sydney. He owes the CIA a favor and with Sydney with him at all times I do not think he could possibly get away.
Sydney couldn't believe what she was hearing. Sark was going with her? She was going to have to be constantly watching him, great, just great. This was going to be one hell of a trip.