This is my second Alias fic, not to worry though I own all seasons of Alias on DVD and stuff so I know what I am doing. Note: These first few chapters are going to be like on those episodes where they start out with something and then go back and explain it.
No Other Way
Chapter 1: Memory, Part 1: The Beginning
Jack was dead, Jack Bristow, master spy, secret agent, first class strategist, and Sydney Bristow's father was dead. Deceased as of four months ago, and it had taken APO up to three days ago just to find one viable lead. It had all started with the Russians turning over Jack's body to the CIA, after that he had been cremated and Sydney spread his ashes across the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. That had been the worst day of her life, and since those four months she buried herself in her work at APO, vowing to find Jack's murder, and kill them. The work had finally paid off and thanks to a tape Sydney and Vaughn had stolen from a secret facility in Kazakhstan, Russia they new knew who the murderer was.
It was one A.M. Sydney ran down the white round entrance hall of APO, Sloane had called her there just thirty minutes ago with news that they knew who the killer was. Sydney tore into the entrance hall, Nadia behind her, turned the corner and almost smacked right into Sloane. She halted promptly.
"Where's the tape?" She asked out of breath.
"Marshall's office," Sloane replied. "Come now!"
XxX
Marshall's office was as quiet as Sydney's house now, except there was one difference between the two. Sydney's house was empty and still, Marshall's office was crammed with people including Dixon, Weiss, Marshall of course, and Vaughn. Sloane, Sydney and Nadia stepped in quickly, gathering around Marshall and his computer. The man could do great things with electronic devices; his skills with a computer were as great as Sydney's in the field. Marshall turned to face her. He didn't look as perky and happy as he might have.
"Who did it?" Sydney asked. "Who killed him?"
"I don't know how to tell you this Syd, of course I don't know how to tell people a lot of things you know, like sometimes when Carrie has the TV up to loud I cant—"
"Marshall!"
"Oh yeah," Marshall jumped at Sydney's loud voice. "It was…"
"It was who Marshall?"
"Irina Derevko."
72 Hours Ago, Los Angeles
Sydney walked into APO for the millionth time in the six months she had been working there, two months of which her father had been with her, the other four he had been dead. Every day she went in there they were no closer to finding any sort of lead on who the killer was. Forensic analysis showed nothing, the only evidence they had were the two bullets recovered from his head, they came from a nine millimeter pistol, that's all they knew. Other than that they had nothing, no finger prints on the body, hair samples, nothing. And now the body of Jack Bristow was little more than ash.
It was a miracle that had even found the body itself, which they actually had handed over to them from the Russians who found an American affiliated with the CIA dead on Soviet soil. They handed him over and said they had nothing else, no leads, evidence, suspects, nothing, which of course Sydney thought was a load of crap.
Anyway today was her day off, but she walked into APO like any other work day, not complaining that this job was taking over what personal life she had. Sloane had called her in, as usual. He always told her he was there for her, and that she was not the only one who felt pain in Jack's death. This half comforted her, half sickened her. She didn't know whether or not she could believe Sloane. Nevertheless she walked into his office, putting her personal feelings aside and burying them deep down.
"Ah Sydney, you're here, good." Sloane greeted.
"Yeah great, today is my day off too." Sydney replied sharply, not really meaning to be rude but she hadn't any coffee this morning and she was tired.
"I doubt you'll care when you hear what I have to say."
Sydney's hopes rose, the only thing that would make her not care when a cup of coffee was absent from her system so early in the morning was if they had found any intelligence about her father.
"What is it?" She asked hopefully, though not sounding so.
"We have just acquired intel from an agent within the Kremlin. It turns out that the SVR is actually conducting an investigation into Jack's murder as we suspected. It seems they also know who the killer was but they will not willingly divulge the information to anyone and all documents on it are classified to the highest level. However we have just found out about a secret analysis facility in Kazakhstan. We have reason to believe the Russians are in possession of footage of Jack's murder and they are keeping it in this facility because of its secret location."
"Oh my god," was all Sydney could manage.
"I'm calling a briefing in five."
XxX
The briefing room was as white as the rest of APO and was like any other briefing room Sydney was ever in. Accept for the fact that they had nearly three dozen LCD screens on the wall, Sydney found herself taking in every detail of those screens with nothing else to do. It was as though each second was an hour long, and each minute was a day. Where the hell was Sloane? Nadia, Weiss, Dixon, Vaughn, Marshall, and Sydney herself were all present in the room. What was taking him so long? What felt like hours later, but was actually three seconds Sloane stepped in.
Every head snapped in his direction. They watched intently as Sloane grabbed the remote for the screens off of the white table and pressed a button, the screens on the wall flashed and displayed a satellite image of what looked somewhat like a square warehouse. It was surrounded by a snowy tundra littered here and there with rocks and huge curving white hills.
"This," Sloane began. "is a secret SVR facility in Kazakhstan, Russia. We believe the Russians are keeping footage of Jack's murder here. This facility is well guarded and has weak exterior surveillance but a strong guard presence in doors. It also has alarm systems that will directly alert Soviet military who will respond to any intruder with lethal force. There is a military camp just half a mile from here with at least two hundred troops and thirty helicopters. So going in tactically is not an option."
"Where did we acquire this intel?" Vaughn asked.
"An agent within the Kremlin supplied us with it." Sloane replied, and continued. "Director Hayden Chase has authorized this office to send operatives into this facility to retrieve the footage on this tape. It is on the top of three floors in this facility in a storage/ analysis room. Sydney, Vaughn, you'll be going in stealth, Nadia, Weiss you'll be covering in a nearby stealth helicopter for extraction. I want a plan for infiltration drawn up within the hour. Take into account that there can be absolutely no fatalities in that facility and if possible I want a recorded version of the tape. We don't want to provoke a war with Russia. Marshall will run op-tech; you leave in twenty four hours. Dover air field, good luck."