Chapter 7: Pieces
When Arvin Sloane walked through the door of her house with a smug little confident look on his face and stepped into her living room area, nodding once at Irina casually and doing the same with Nadia Sydney could just have about shot him. He dared act so casual when he was guilty of something like Irina had said!
He sat down opposite from Irina and Nadia on the other sofa, Sydney contemplated whether or not she should burn the thing later. She floated from one sofa to the next, waiting. Sloane and Irina stared one another down, each knowing what Irina was about to accuse him of, Sloane's confidence had faded the moment he sat down.
"Irina," Sloane acknowledged. "Good to see you."
"Arvin," Irina acknowledged quirking and eyebrow. That was the last thing she would have expected Sloane to say. "It isn't good to see you."
"I'm sorry you feel that way." Sloane said coolly. His gaze flickered to Nadia who was staring at him with no expression. "Now why have you called me here? Running APO isn't as easy as it looks."
"I'm sure it's not." Irina said, matching Sloane's tone. "You know why I called you here, you're smart enough to figure it out, yes… I can see it in your eyes. Will you tell them, or do you want me to?"
"Tell us what?" Nadia asked.
"What the cover of Omnifam was." Irina said. "Do you want me to tell them, or will you?"
"Irina I don't know what you—"
"Omnifam was used as a cover for Sloane's research," Irina said to Sydney and Nadia keeping her gaze on Sloane the whole time.
"Research on what?" Sydney asked, though the answer was clear.
"Another one of Rambaldi's quests." Irina stated. "Rambaldi collaborated with a man called Mueller and used on of his devices. You know what it is Sydney, the device you disarmed in Taipei when you were still inside SD-6, the Mueller device. Shall I go on Arvin?"
"Oh yes, by all means."
"The Mueller device's function is to send out a sub-audible frequency. As you know Sydney the Mueller device is made up of liquid and theoretically the frequency it transmits can have an effect on liquids of the same kind that is it made of. Has your memory returned to you Arvin?"
"I failed when I tried… that Irina! I failed, it is impossible for someone to find—"
"There is a rare orchid, generally though to be extinct, but it is not." Irina continued her face hard. "The nectar of this orchid can be used to alter human brain waves, change our way of life, and breed the aggression out of us with the help of the Mueller device. Perhaps now Arvin…"
"I used Omnifam as cover to fund my search for the orchid; I wanted to make our world a better place." Sloane said "When I could not find it I attempted to synthesize its nectar, but the results were… horrible. I dumped into some of the world's water supply only to find out that it would not breed the aggression out of people, but maximize it."
"You what?" Nadia asked.
"Yes, but without the Mueller device and the real nectar it is useless. Why are you speaking of this Irina?"
"Because my sister, Elena, found the nectar and has constructed every piece of the Mueller device, she needs one more thing."
"How do you know she's—"
"Because I tracked it down to a monastery and found every monk there dead and a cutting of the dying orchid was taken."
"Damn it!" Sloane cried. "I have made a terrible mistake!"
"Mistake?" Sydney hissed. "Mistake? No, when someone undercooks your steak that is a mistake. You are going to be responsible for global genocide, that is not a mistake its worse, and it's not he first thing you've done you son of a bitch! When you killed Danny and almost killed me because I wouldn't go back to SD-6—"
"Sydney," Irina cut her off quietly. "Elena is missing a transformer coil. I came here because I need help to find out where she plans to get it, and to explain."
Sydney snapped out of her rage and looked at Nadia who had her eyes closed and was shaking her head.
"You," She said quietly to Sloane. "It will be your fault if Elena succeeds, the blood of the entire world will be on your hands, you monster."
Sloane winced, Irina cut in.
"Not necessarily, how many people drank the contaminated water Sloane?"
"Somewhere between three and four hundred billion."
"Then I suggest we find out where Elena plans to obtain a transformer coil from as soon as possible."
"We need to go to APO with this." Sydney said. "But you can't Sloane. You're forbidden from engaging in anything involving Rambaldi."
"Sydney I have to clean up this mess, I need to stop Elena."
"If it hadn't been for you we wouldn't need to stop Elena, if it hadn't been for you… forgive me if I don't give a damn about your feelings!"
"We do need to stop Elena." Nadia said, everyone looked to her. "We all need to concentrate on this, even you, but that doesn't mean that you will be forgiven."
"We need to take this up with Director Chase, and find out the best way to proceed."
"I will come with you." Irina said.
"Mom you're a fugitive, Chase will arrest you."
"No she wont, I'm to useful."
XxX
No one didn't pay attention when Irina Derevko walked into APO with Arvin Sloane, Nadia Santos, and Sydney Bristow in her wake, the receptionist picked up her phone and dialed in a number so quickly she didn't know whether she got it right, when she heard to voice at the other end say: "Is this an urgent matter?" in an irritated yet professional tone she knew she had gotten it right.
"Yes Director Chase, I'm Agent Bell, secretary here at APO—"
"I know who you are Mrs. Bell, please get on with it."
"Well director… Irina Derevko just walked in."
"Don't play games with me Mrs. Bell, I'll have you fired."
"I'm not kidding director; you better get down here now."
Irina, Sloane, Nadia, and Sydney sat down in the briefing room, attracted to all the publicity on Irina Marshall, Weiss and Vaughn joined them each had their mouths wide open when they saw Irina sit down at the table so casually. However Weiss's attention turned to Nadia who was attempting to hold in her anger and sadness at her father. Sloane stood up, everyone in the entire office looked toward him, everything was silent.
"As you know Irina Derevko killed Jack Bristow…"
"Sit down Sloane." Irina said standing up. "I'll explain."
She gave a sweeping look around the visible part of the office.
"I killed Jack Bristow because he put a hit on Agent Sydney Bristow's life." Irina said, everyone in the office looked like they had just been punched in the gut. Half of them stared in disbelief the other half were so shocked at this they were expressionless, even the secretary Mrs. Bell was flabbergasted. Irina paused and was about to continue when Vaughn shook his head and interrupted.
"Jack Bristow would never do something like that."
She looked at Vaughn and shook her head, out of her jacket pocket she took out her cell phone and tossed it to Marshall who was sweating like mule he barely caught in.
"Hook it up to the monitors, display the only three picture's on it."
"Oh… yeah, well okay Mrs. Bristow or Derevko, Mrs. BristowDerevko, uh wait am I supposed to…"
"Just plug it in Marshall!" Snapped about five people. Marshall nodded and hooked the cell phone up, he pressed a couple buttons and the screens on the wall flashed and they displayed all of Irina's pictures. There was Jack sitting around on some beach, on the next screen there was Anna Espinosa, then Jack exchanging money with her and the contract. Sydney looked away and around at the workers, she couldn't tell whether they were more shocked at the fact Jack had put a contract on Sydney's head, or that Anna Espinosa was in fact alive, or maybe they still simply could not believe Irina Derevko was there. Finally Marshall unplugged the phone and tossed it back to Irina, sitting down he wiped the sweat from his forehead. Irina deposited the phone back into her pocket.
"I killed Jack to save Sydney; there was no other way." Irina said solemnly. "That's not why I'm here."
"Why are you here?" Weiss asked.
"Because my sister Elena could unleash a terrible weapon very soon and cause global genocide. I am here to stop it." Irina said and quickly summarized what Elena was doing, what Sloane did and what Elena was missing. Sydney took another sweeping look at the office; everyone was now gathered around the open briefing room. Then something caught her eye, a tall dark skinned, short haired woman rounded a corner she was flanked by four men in black clothing, each bearing a silenced and automatic assault rifle aimed right at Irina.
"Stand down Derevko!" Director Chase said, pulling out a pistol. Irina looked at them impassively. Sydney stood up, throwing out her hands.
"Wait Director Chase! Listen to what she has to say."
"Oh I heard it, I have several listening devices planted in every room of this facility. I don't believe a word about Agent Jack Bristow, but I trust she is telling the truth about her sister Elena but Irina Derevko is a fugitive, she must be taken into custody."
"I'm the only one who can help you." Irina said.
"How exactly?"
"I know how to stop Elena, I just need to know where she is. She's looking for a transformer coil; you must task Echelon to look for those keywords, transformer coil, Elena, Derevko, and Anna Espinosa."
"I'm not in the habit of collaborating with criminals." Chase snapped.
It took a little more convincing but finally Chase gave up and agreed. She had to clear it with Langley however and then she would try to get Echelon to search for the keywords Irina requested.
A Day Later
Sloane had called an immediate briefing the next day. Irina had been the first there (since she had to stay the night in the APO offices under heavy surveillance) the hot topic among the entire office of APO was that something on Elena Derevko had been found, nobody except Sloane and Director Chase knew for sure. It was six in the morning; Sydney had been woken by her cell phone and Vaughn's. Weiss had stayed over at the house too with Nadia as she was feeling horrible because of the terrible secret about Sloane. Sydney and Vaughn were the last to sit down at the white table in the briefing room, Irina, Nadia, Weiss, Marshall, Chase, Dixon, and Sloane were all there. Sloane stood up.
"It seems Elena Derevko is moving sooner than we anticipated." He said. "Last night Echelon picked up the word transformer coil along with other keywords such as Anna, we assume this refers to Anna Espinosa, but it also picked up the name of something we can't ID, a project Nightingale."
"Oh god," Irina said. "It exists."
"What?" A mixture of people asked.
"Project Nightingale was rumored to operate in Siberia, it has to do with experimenting with radiation and would have a transformer coil, and if Anna Espinosa is working with my sister then she is going there soon. We need to move quickly. We can go in stealth, I know the doctor who is head of Nightingale, Sydney can come with me, Nadia as backup, Vaughn and Agent Dixon can enter stealth, we can subdue the doctor and take out his guards and open the Nightingale test chamber, Vaughn and Dixon can retrieve the coil."
"No," Sydney said. "I want to retrieve the coil in case Anna is there, Dixon can cover you mom."
"I can do that." Dixon agreed.
Marshall raised his hand. "Hold on, wait a minute. Now I know Director Chase, hi director how are you, has authorized Mr. Sloane to head this operation but isn't there a list of operatives Sloane is not allowed to engage? I though Anna was on the list."
"It's fine Agent Flinkman, I have authorized it." Chase stated matter-of-factly.
"I agree with Irina and Sydney's plan." Sloane said. "Dixon, Sydney, Vaughn, Irina, Nadia, report to Marshall. Marshall?"
"Yes uh Mr. Sloane?"
"Go to your office, run op-tech. Weiss get a plane fueled and chartered for Siberia immediately, Director Chase?"
"Yes Sloane?"
"Come with me, we need to re task satellites. Everyone leaves in twenty four hours!"
I never planned this fic to be very long since it is my first full length Alias one, so as you may or may not know this tale is reaching its end, I have ten chapters plotted and I promise you that the last three will be packed and Anna Espinosa will make an appearance. Please review as it is much appreciated.
