Chapter 9

Sydney tossed her bag on the floor and collapsed, face down on the dingy bed, not even caring what residues might be lingering on the stained comforter. It had been an almost six hour drive through heavy rush hour traffic and her body was killing her from all the sitting.

She rolled over on her back with a hiss of pain, she could feel the new scars, both inside and out throbbing dully and she bit back a whimper at a sharp stab of pain from her still healing broken ribs.

She groaned as someone knocked on her door.

"Who is it?" She called, trying, and failing to keep the weariness and pain out of her voice.

"It's Gage." A flurry of emotions erupted inside her, she was half way between excitement and dread, dread because she knew that as soon as she opened the door, he would know she was hurting, and he would insist she go home.

She pulled herself up and opened the door for him.

She knew he could tell as soon as he saw her that she was hurting.

"I shouldn't have let you come, Syd." Gage said, a protective edge to his voice as he stepped toward her.

"What did you say?!" She said, her eyes flashing angrily as she stepped back from him, He remained silent.

"I don't know where the hell you get off, Gage, but I am not your girlfriend, and even if I were, it still wouldn't give you the right to treat me like a child that needs your permission to do anything or go anywhere. It'll be a cold day in hell before I let anyone do that." She said as she crossed her arms and stared right at him, her dark eyes ablaze.

The sting from her rebuttal caused Gage's temper to flare.

"Syd, is it so hard for you to let someone in?!" Gage said as he threw his hands up in frustration

"It is if I have to lose myself in the process." She retorted coolly as she stood her ground.

"And you wonder why you haven't had a date, or a relationship in so long, Syd? This is why! Because you're an ice queen who pushes anyone away who gets too close to you!" Gage spat, his anger taking control of his tongue.

The look on her face immediately made him regret it; Sydney looked at him as though he had just slapped her, and he basically had … emotionally.

'Shit!' He cursed himself.

"Syd, look, I …"

"Gage, I think you'd better go." She interrupted him, her voice barely above a whisper as she turned her back to him.

"Syd look, I'm sorry, I got angry, I didn't mean it." He said as he put a hand on her shoulder, she shrugged it off and jerked away from him, spinning around to face him, hot angry tears were running down her beautiful face and Gage felt like someone had just stabbed him in the heart.

"I said GO!" She yelled as she shoved him hard toward the door. In her anger, she had forgotten her still healing body, but it was quick to send her a brutal, painful reminder. White hot pain shot through her as she doubled over, gritting her teeth against it.

"GO!" She yelled through her gritted teeth as he took a step toward her, she retreated and slowly sat on the bed, taking deep breaths, waiting for the pain to return to a manageable level.

"Get … the hell out of here, Gage, and as far as I am concerned, our time as partners is done." She said, slightly breathless from the pain.

Gage wanted so much to apologize, to grovel at her feet for forgiveness, but he knew it would fall on deaf ears. So he left without another word or look.


"Okay, the shipment is already in, according to my informants, it arrived a few days ago and is located over here." Michaels said as she drew a diagram of the ship yard.

"This is our target." She said as she produced a satellite image of the yard and circled one of the containers.

"Geeze, that's going to be hard to infiltrate without being made." Trivette said as he turned to Walker.

But Walker didn't seem to be listening to anything anyone was saying, he was busy studying their two junior rangers. He noticed that when they arrived, they made it a point not to make eye contact, or sit near one another.

Walker rubbed his chin thoughtfully, what could have happened?

"Walker, are you even listening?" Trivette said as he nudged his friend.

"Yeah, I'm listening, I'm also wondering what happened with Sydney and Gage, they seem to be avoiding each other." Walker said.

"Well, I did see Gage going to Sydney's room last night, then he left in a huff about thirty minutes later, I don't know what happened." Trivette said, Walker gave him the same worried look. He knew what he would have to do if they couldn't work out whatever issues had arisen between them, he would have to split them up assign them new partners.

"We'll deal with this later, right now, we have a job to do." Walker said as they dispersed.


"Walker, you copy?" Michaels said.

"Loud and clear, Agent Michaels." Walker's voice came over the frequency.

"Good, you and Gage are my eyes and ears on the front lines, if anything goes down, you know what to do." Michaels said.

"Rodger that, over and out." Walker said, never removing his eyes from his binoculars as he spoke to Michaels over his earpiece.

"Okay Michaels said as she took off her ear piece and wire gear and gave it to Sydney.

"What's this?" She asked as she gave the older woman a peculiar look.

"I have to head up this operation, but we need eyes and ears, and I can't do both, so you're going to be my bird in the air, watching all of our backs." Michaels said, when Sydney still didn't seem like she understood the method behind her madness, Michaels put a hand on Sydney's shoulder.

"Look, I've been there, I know how it feels to want to be out there, but you can't. So, this is the next best thing, this way, you can be part of it." She said with a smile as she exited the van.

Once she was alone, Sydney concentrated on the monitor and retreated into her thoughts, and her thoughts fell on the fight that she and Gage had, a new wave of pain washed over as his words echoed around her mind. It wasn't just his words, it was the look he gave her when he had said them, it was so cold so … unfeeling that she felt like she had been stabbed through the heart with an icicle.

"Ranger Cooke!" A voice hissed into her ear, making her jump and bringing her crashing back to reality.

"Yes, Agent Michaels, I read you loud and clear." Sydney said into her headpiece.

From their perch on one of the shipping containers, Gage's heart leapt at the sound of her voice coming into his ear by way of his ear piece.

"Okay, its O zero hundred hours, my sources say the jig's due to go down so keep your eyes peeled!" Michaels said, her voice had an urgent edge to it, Sydney knew she wanted these guys real bad, hell, Sydney did too, their boss had shot her and she wanted the opportunity to face them.

Suddenly, she saw movement on the screen to her far left, the one covering the docks.

"Head's up, something's going down on the docks, a boat is pulling up, it might be them." She said as the boat pulled up to the docks and six men got out.

"Walker, they're coming your way." Sydney's voice said into their ear.

"Rodger that." Walker said as he and Gage drew their weapons and watched for a visual.

The men rounded the corner and they made their move, the poor henchmen didn't know what hit them as the two rangers took them out with a few well-placed kicks and punches.

Suddenly, Sydney noticed there was one man missing, she frantically searched the monitors and didn't see him, and then, she heard hurried, scurrying footsteps going around their van, echoing off the surrounding shipping containers.

Sydney scooted to the back and flung open one of the van's back doors, there was a grunt and a thud as the man hit the door so hard, she was surprised he didn't break the glass. She leapt out, ready for a fight, only to find the man knocked clean out, she flipped him onto his stomach and cuffed him, just as the others walked up with the five other men in custody.


Ranger Walker, company B, I can't thank you enough. Agent Michaels said as she shook all of their hands.

"It was our pleasure." Bruscoe said as he shook her hand, Walker couldn't help but chuckle at the eagerness of his superior.

"Well, in that case, I hope we can do it again soon, then." She said with a flirtatious wink at Bruscoe as she walked out the door. Bruscoe let out a low whistle once she was out of ear shot.

"Now that is one fine woman." He said as they all laughed.