Operation Suicide

Sydney was smiling on the outside. On the inside, she was seething. It wasn't often that she had a chance to blow one up in Sloane's face these days. The man deserved some strong words and a slap to the cheek. She skipped the slap and settled for some verbal abuse. "If you ever send me and my team – and anyone else you might get a chance to order around – into a mission like that again, I will make sure you are taken down."

She felt her chest heaved with the effort of putting her feelings into words and the rage boiled up inside her. Sloane said nothing, but studied her with a calm, calculating look that made her hate him more. "Sydney. I-" He began after a few moments.

She shook her head. "No. No, this is my turn to talk. You've talked quite enough. And yet, you couldn't mention that we would be putting ourselves in unnecessary danger to get a device, a Rambaldi device, that you've been forbidden to be in contact with, no less?"

Sloane shrugged.

Her next words were soft but firm. Tense. "We could have died. You led us into a situation where Vaughn was majorly injured and Nadia and I nearly were too. Your daughter," she said, putting an emphasis on the word 'daughter', "could have died."

"The risks were worth it."

"If you're so convinced of that, why didn't you fill us in?" She stared at him across his desk, her palms out flat on the surface and fire in her eyes. "We deserved to know what we were getting ourselves into."

At that, Sloane finally showed some emotion. He stood up, slowly but with intent, and moved around the desk so that he was standing next to Sydney. She straightened up and their eyes locked in a battle of wills. "It was my call," Sloane said. "I have control of this operation and what I tell you is what you need to know. If you don't like it, maybe you should find another job."

He made a good point. She couldn't count the number of times she had been convinced to give up the spy life and go back to uni for awhile, find a normal career and maybe one day have a family. The hope that someday that would become reality is what had driven her so far into her current position.

"You know that's not going to happen," Sydney said. "I won't quit until you've gotten the punishment you deserve. I won't quit until you're no longer a threat." She left him with that, storming out of his office. She only wished that the door had slammed behind her instead of quietly gliding shut.

Fin.