Note: THANKS for reviewing. I so appreciate it and it gives me a clearer picture of why I root for A & R so much. I found the villains in S5 so interesting. Belenko and Kravec were way more intriguing than Henry W. Maybe b/c there wasn't much backstory. We had so much more with Henry. . . ENJOY. I also started a new story that I might post soon. It was meant to be a one shot, but I get stressed and instead of binge eating, I binge write. ;)

Annie headed out of D.C. to the black site location where Belenko was being held. She found long drives while listening to music soothing. Even though she was really good at being around people and socializing, long drives recharged her. She always welcomed the time alone with her thoughts and allowed her mind to wander. She was accustomed to being alone during her quest to take down Henry Wilcox; it was a necessity. When it was over, she couldn't bring herself to return at first, she needed the time alone to process and decompress. Soon her planned two weeks of vacation turned into three and then four. That's when she discovered that she genuinely enjoyed solitude, she probably always had enjoyed being alone. Growing up after moving around so much was lonely. Now as an adult, while alone there was no need for lies. . . but when she was finally ready to return home on her own terms, to start fresh, she discovered there was something wrong, her heart was not figuratively broken, it was literally broken.

Annie didn't want to face it, but at her cardiologist appointment, Dr. Chang confirmed what she had suspected and feared for the last couple of weeks. Her condition had indeed worsened. Her episodes were no longer few and far between, they seemed to come every couple of days. She couldn't get out of the sterile medical office and away from Ryan fast enough. She wanted to cry, she wanted to scream, she wanted to pound on a punching bag and sprint at full speed just to prove she still could do all the things she was trained to do, all the things that gave her purpose and the adrenalin rush that gave her a natural high, she was addicted to her life as a spy. . . She wanted to do all those things despite knowing that her heart couldn't handle it anymore.

Being a spy for the CIA caused her heart problem. She remembered the irony when Eyal's friend confirmed her fears a couple of months back in Israel. Her heart betrayed her in more ways than she thought possible. Roger Bennett's words also echoed in her head. . . "spycraft-the thing that I am best at the very thing that gives me purpose-is also killing me." If she kept up with the pace her life had adopted, then yeah, maybe being a spy would end up killing her too. "Another crossroads Annie," she said to herself. "Ugh Annie! Focus, you need to work Belenko to stop ISIS leaders from getting the toxins!" She had to get out of the endless loop of feeling sorry for herself.

Annie shook off her personal problems and started reviewing all the evidence and intelligence gathered in her head. Joan had ordered her to use Belenko to offer him a deal in exchange for helping to lead the CIA to his brother and the rest of his toxins. Annie loathed what she was about to do. She didn't think he deserved a day to be free even if his days were numbered and the quality of life he was going to have was abysmal. The things he did the Auggie and Auggie's friends were unforgiveable. But it wasn't he first time she was asked to do difficult things for the agency. It she was going to have to retire from the field, she was going to go out with a big win.

/

Barber was looking through the intel on Auggie's laptop. It had taken a few days to arrive via secure routes. He did as Joan asked and downloaded everything that was from McQuaid's laptop onto Annie's and began pouring over it himself. Langer, he knew was the one who had taken Auggie from his apartment and transported him out of the country. He was also the one who had managed to break through Langley's security and tried to kill Auggie and James under all their noses. Barber wanted to do what he could to help nail the bastard.

Eric found a list of Allan Langer's aliases and cross-checked all the operatives at McQuaid's Flint division. He ran them through all their databases and facial recognition files to note all their travel plans. A couple came up who had recently traveled to regions of interest to the task force such as Turkey, Georgia, Germany, and Russia include Borz and Mikola Altan. Barber flagged them all for further review. Next he cross-referenced the list that came up against Langer's travel and past missions to see who had worked with Langer before and who had been in the same or close to the same cities. Soon Eric had a list of persons of interest and crafted a detailed history of Langer's travels based on all the facial recognition databases the agency had access to.

He took the list straight to his boss Joan Campbell.

"I had a couple of free hours and noticed that Annie was out of the office. I know this is important and I want to nail that bastard for what he did to Auggie, so I'm bringing it to you."

"Thanks Barber, this is an important lead."

"Get started on those names and prioritize who we should further investigate."

/

Ryan shook his bad mood off. There was nothing he could do about Annie at the moment. They had to come to terms with both their jobs and she was right. He had to allow her to be her, he couldn't expect her to give up the job she loved, the job that allowed them to meet. He prayed that surgery would fix her heart.

Ryan had to get ready to go to Turkey and enter into Syria to track down a contact of Belenko and Langer's. They traced him from Langer's computer. He looked through his databases for what he could find on Eyal Lavin. He wanted to know what Mossad's interest was in all of this and if he could leverage it or not. It might come in handy to have a Mossad contact. Ryan knew a few people from the IDF, the SEALS had conducted some joint military exercises with them. He would reach out to them en route and see what info they could offer on Belenko and Langer.

Arthur came back into his office.

"Ryan, we're going to have to loop Joan and the entire Joint Chiefs soon. This is clearly bigger than we imagined," said Arthur.

"There are rumblings over at Langley that Belenko may have ties with an ISIS leader. The situation in Syria is volatile and we really or you really don't know what you are heading into."

Ryan nodded. "Set up a meeting with Joan, but after I return, so three days from now."

"Maybe they'll share what they have, we need it to be quid pro quo. Make sure they know that before the meeting. I don't want to waste my time."

He never had any patience when working with the CIA, even after he met Annie, who liked to do things her way versus the agency's way, he still found that the bureaucracy of the CIA aggravated him. But knowing that someone he wholly respected like Annie was so loyal to the CIA, he decided to give the agency some slack. His main motivation was looping them in would allow him to work more closely with Annie after he returned. Ryan wanted to keep an eye on her and he also

knew it was the right thing to do.

Arthur chose his words carefully, he knew this was personal for Ryan and he knew his former student wasn't one to leave justice at the hands of others. "What do you expect to happen in Syria, are you sure it's the smart play to go in? How about after we loop Joan in?"

"No, let's hold off until after I return. I'll have more to go on and the more I have the less reason they have to ice us out."

Arthur nodded. Ryan had a point. He above all others knew how the CIA operated.

/

Annie practiced her strategy as she continued to drive towards the location where Belenko was being held. She knows how he thinks. He likes to believe he's got one up on the people around him. He liked to believe they are friends and have some sort of camaraderie and rapport because they are both hunted by the Russians and they both hated the Russians. Except Belenko was wrong. She didn't necessarily hate Russians. She had loved one after all. She loved the language, the literature and history and minored in Russian and Russian Studies. The last Russian she met, Olga had been an ally. No she didn't hate Russians, sure they were sometimes enemies and sometimes allies, but the important thing was to use what Belenko felt against him. She would let him believe she too hated the Russians and wanted them to pay for how they screwed around with her life. She would work her charm to convince him to turn against his brother in exchange for his freedom. Annie swallowed. She couldn't believe she was going to put his freedom on the table, but this was the job, she had to be okay living in the grey. This could possibly be her last misson if her surgery doesn't repair her hear so she had to give it all she had. She had to stop Belenko from putting his plan of revenge in motion.

As Annie was driving the last stretch of road, she received a call from Eyal.

"Neshema!"

"What are you doing calling me?" she asked baffled that he would actually use a phone to communicate with her.

"Do I need a reason to call a friend?" Annie smiled.

"In our case, yes, we only ever meet by accident, phone calls have never been our thing."

She always managed to make him laugh.

"I wanted to check on you and I'm fine by the way in case you were wondering."

"I'm good too."

"Really? Did you see the doctor?"

"Yes, I saw a bonafide doctor with a degree who works at a hospital."

"Ouch. That hurt Neshema."

"Thanks for your concern, but I'm okay."

"Really?"

Annie hesitated and swallowed.

She was trying to convince herself more than Eyal, but she said, "Yes, healthy as a horse."

"That thing you asked me to do."

"Yeah?"

"Done. All is well, I do have a message for you."

"Thank you, I mean that. What's the message?"

"She'd like to see you in person."

Annie's brows furrowed. Why would Zarya Fischer need to see her?

"Did she say what it was about?"

"No, she didn't, but I said I'd pass the message and I did tell her that it would be difficult. I offered to be your cut-out, but she didn't bring it up again during our time together."

"Time together?" queried Annie.

"She invited me to have tea and one thing led to another."

Annie's eyes widened. On the other end Eyal knew she was getting upset.

"What the hell, I wanted you to give her a message not seduce her," screamed Annie into the speaker.

"I didn't do the seducing. I'm always a gentleman, you can ask her yourself when you see her."

"I asked you for a favor, ugh, I don't have time for this Eyal."

"I did what you asked and you see now I'm invested in keeping her safe too. Win win as you Americans like to say."

"I appreciate it Eyal. I can't get to see her for a bit. Can you tell her that?"

"Anything for you Neshema."

"Bye," said Annie.

"Wait, I do have business. Mossad business"

Eyal proceeded to tell her that Rivka and Joan had spoken. He filled her in on the intelligence Mossad had gathered.

Annie let out a deep breath, "That does explains Khan's trip to Moscow."

"Comes in handy to have a friend at Mossad, didn't know you were able to tap into their CCTVs."

"We traced Khan to the conference in Moscow. He was seen leaving a suitcase in a train station near the hotel where Khan stayed for his conference."

"The suitcase was picked up already and we couldn't get a good look at the person who did it. He was clearly more trained than Khan and avoided the cameras."

"Do you have verification of what's in the suitcase?"

"No, but we believe that it's the toxin Britta made."

"Who's the target? Does Mossad know?" asked Annie?

"Not just one person, an entity. The Kremlin and offices of the SVR and FSB."

"He blames the Russians for killing his family," interjected Annie. "And he blamed Auggie's Special Forces team and the U.S. for not intervening more,"

"I'm sorry Neshema, I should have listened to you back in Turkey. I know there were more duffels, we're looking into it now."

Annie sighed. "You've never listened to me so why start? Life wouldn't be interesting if you had."

Eyal chuckled.

"We'll figure it out."

"I'm on my way to see Belenko now."

"I'll be in touch. Be careful."

Annie hung up feeling like a ton of bricks had been dropped on her.