-1Chapter 14
Sydney's heart was beating rapidly as she lay there trapped in the MRI machine that surrounded her body, giant magnets rotating around her head and hammering sounds deep into her brain. Finally, after 20 minutes, the table retreated from the machine's horizontal tube. She took a deep breath and quickly looked through the glass at the adjacent room for Sloane. He was gone.
"Where is he?" Sydney asked distressfully.
"Dr. Jain is in the other room," the nurse answered as she helped Sydney sit up.
"No, not him," Sydney replied with frustration as her eyes darted around the room for any sign of the man she despised.
"Agent Bristow, no one else has been here," the nurse spoke. Sydney peered at her with bafflement.
"Sloane?"
"He hasn't been here," the nurse responded. Sydney looked around one last time and then back at the nurse. What did she mean he hadn't been there. She must be lying, Sydney thought.
"Who do you work for?" Sydney asked with determined accusation.
"I work for The CIA, for APO. Why are you asking me this?" The nurse answered with confusion.
"Who asked you to lie to me?" Sydney asked in a forceful tone. Her eyes went stone cold.
"Agent Bristow, I don't know what your talking about. I did not lie to you." She replied defensively.
"Sloane was here. I heard him when I was in the machine."
"Agent Bristow, the machine is loud. There is no way you could hear anyone in the other room. I assure you, he wasn't here." The nurse explained with resentment at the accusation. Sydney peered at her with harsh eyes.
"We're all done here. Why don't you get dressed," the nurse requested trying to get away from Sydney's glare. Sydney got up quickly and left the room, giving the nurse a nasty look as she went.
Sydney quickly made her way up to her father's office, briefly peering around for Sloane on her way. She couldn't see him, but she had no doubt he had been there. Meanwhile, Jack was sitting in his office thumbing through some files.
"Dad, we need to talk," Sydney said as she breezed through the door.
"Sydney, if this is about the tests, I was only looking out for your best interests." He replied stubbornly not wishing to fight with her about it anymore.
"Its not that," Sydney said as she turned her head around, looking for any sign that anyone else was there. No one was. At that, she walked up to him, coming within inches of him and whispered to him in a low tone. "Its Sloane."
Jack's eyes opened wider at the utterance of that name. "Let's go somewhere else." He cautioned and they briskly walked down to the parkade together, getting inside Jack's car. As he started the car and pulled out of the building, he began to inquire more.
"What about Sloane?" he asked.
"He's the head of The Guildiya, dad. And he's planning something," she spoke with interest.
"Where did you get this intel?" Jack asked with skepticism.
"Sark." She replied.
"You went to Sark in prison?"
"No," Sydney replied with confusion, shaking her head, "Sark's not in prison."
"Yes, Sydney, he is." Jack replied confidently. He hadn't received any reports of Sark escaping and he was sure he'd know the minute such a thing happened.
Sydney looked at Jack with deep confusion. She remembered. He was captured months ago. She shook her head, she couldn't understand it. How had she seen him, met with him.
"He must have escaped," she asserted.
"Sydney, I would have heard."
"I have to go," she replied with haste. Sydney quickly started to get out of the car that had been pulled over at an empty lot of warehouses.
"Sydney, wait," Jack said, getting out of the car after her. He grabbed her arm and she swung around to face him.
"Dad, I really have to go!" She exclaimed desperately.
"Where? where are you going to go?" He said with frustration.
"I just need to go figure some things out."
"What things?" He insisted. Sydney met his eyes with a desperate confusion. She didn't understand it. She needed to see him - Sark. To contact him. To know he was real.
"Can you just give me a ride back to my car. I... I'm really tired. I just want to go home." Sydney explained, trying to allay his worries. Jack was skeptical. He knew she was up to something, but he couldn't really do much with her refusing to talk about it.
"Fine." He replied. He would figure out another way to find out what she was hiding. He got back in the car with a distasteful look on his face. Sydney followed his lead and he drove to her car, which was parked in the APO parkade. The car ride was silent.
As soon as the car pulled up beside her own, Sydney got out with haste and headed towards her own car, grabbing the car keys out from her purse.
"Sydney," Jack said. She looked at him wanting to say so much but being unable to tell him the truth. Her eyes were regretful as they met his concerned stare. "Are you sure you're alright?"
"Dad, I'm fine. I'm just tired." It wasn't a lie. Jack nodded as she got into her car. He watched her pull out of the parking spot and quickly got into his own car intending to follow her.
Sydney drove around, not completely sure where to go. She couldn't remember how she had contacted Sark. She wasn't even sure if she had or if it was him who had contacted her. After about an hour of driving, she found herself driving down a long stretch of highway out of the city. Suddenly she saw him. He was leaning up against his black jaguar at the side of the road. No one else was around. Sydney pulled up behind him and proceeded to get out of her car.
"Sydney." Sark smirked suavely.
Sydney looked at him with anger and confusion, "I don't understand how you're here. You were in prison. This... this makes no sense," she spoke with an exhausted confusion in her voice.
"Sydney, you must know me better than this," Sark asserted with disappointment.
"Explain it to me!" She exclaimed, tired and irritated.
"That's not me in prison, Sydney. Its a double," he explained. After a moment he smiled. "I always thought you, Sydney Bristow, would have figured that out sooner."
Sydney sighed. She wasn't crazy, she thought. He was there in front of her. Sark. The real Sark.
"Fine. What info do you have for me?" she asked, moving on.
"Sloane's in Saint Petersburg meeting with a man named Alexander Miranov over some Rambaldi artifacts."
"Do you have any idea what his end game is?"
"Sydney, Rambaldi itself is an endgame for him. You must know this." She nodded. It was true.
"Do you know anything else?"
"Not right now. I'll get back to you the minute I do."
"Fine," she replied in a dead tone as she started getting back into her car.
"Sydney, you know you're eventually going to have to pay back this favour," Sark said with a callous smile. Sydney eyed him coldly as she got back into her car.
Meanwhile, Jack was sitting in his car that was pulled over on the same stretch of highway. He watched her from around a bend, his car hidden in the shadows cast by the hillside. He watched her. She was standing there by herself, her car pulled over in the middle of nowhere. He could see her animatedly talking. But no one else was there. Jack's eyes grew with worry. He quickly got out his cell phone and called Dr. Jain.
"Hello?" Dr. Jain said answering the phone while he sat there looking at Sydney's MRI.
"This is Jack Bristow. We have a problem."