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A/N: Yay! Another chapter! Thanks for the reviews! I appreciate your feedback, and enjoy!
OOOOO
Sydney, Will and I went to APO and discovered, much to Will's dismay, that there was a small explosive charge in the back of his head. Before anyone could suggest strategies for getting it out, a cell phone that had been planted in Will's pocket started ringing. Naturally, it was Anna. Sydney relayed that she had asked a ransom for Will.
Rambaldi's infamous Page 47.
Dixon got the page from the DSR in about forty-five minutes, knowing there wasn't time to lose. Anna demanded that Sydney meet her on a train from Lisbon to Madrid, and hand the page over there.
Sloane explained to Rachel and Tom who Rambaldi was, as they had no idea. Rachel seemed surprised that everyone else in the room seemed to believe that the prophecy written on the page actually held some weight.
After all of that, it was determined that Marshall might be able to defuse the bomb remotely, if the bomb was put in range of the detonator. So, Will and Sydney were going to Lisbon.
I followed Jack into the break room. I knew it was a risk, but I also knew firsthand how dangerous Anna Espinosa was. It wasn't that I didn't trust Will's ability, but I would feel better knowing Sydney had more back up.
"I've told you before," Jack explained calmly. "We can't risk putting you in the field, especially on something like this. Anna is working for Prophet Five – there's a chance she may have orders to kill you if she sees you."
"Then she won't see me," I shot back. He gave me a sarcastic 'yeah right' look. "Jack, I can't just sit around APO anymore – it's driving me insane."
"Insane is better than dead," he stated. "If your own life really means so little to you, perhaps you should consider the lives of Sydney and your daughter. Are you really willing to jeopardize them just because you're tired of sitting in an office?"
"Fine," I snapped. "But give me something, here. We aren't getting anywhere with this investigation, and continuing to give Prophet Five what they want is just going to make things worse."
"What are you suggesting?" Jack asked.
"We already know one of the main members of Prophet Five – one of the twelve. Yeong Cho," I started.
"And we got nothing from the surveillance on his club, or his home," Jack stated.
"So let's bring him in, or at least question him," I suggested. "Maybe we'll get somewhere."
"You know very well that he won't talk to anyone – not in person."
"He might talk to me." Jack looked at me for a long moment. "Look, I get that it's a risk, and maybe I am being cavalier about this whole thing, but do you have a better idea?"
For a moment, he didn't reply. I had a feeling he was going to tell me to give up, that there was no way I could track Cho and just expect him to talk to me. However, his pause did give me hope. Obviously, Cho wasn't just going to talk to anyone, and maybe seeing me face-to-face, someone that his organization thought they killed several months ago, would convince him to talk.
"We still can't be sure he'll give us any viable Intel," Jack replied.
"But he might," I stated.
"There is a chance, albeit a very small one, that he might give us something. However, the risks are extreme," he continued.
"I know," I said again.
"All right," he finally resigned. "Go after him, but do it quietly. We don't want the rest of Prophet Five knowing that we're onto him."
"Okay," I said, relieved that he was actually going to give in for once.
"You'll need someone to go with you – a partner, in case things go bad."
"I'll work it out."
OOOOO
Sydney and Will had already left for their plane by the time I was done talking to Jack. I figured that was better – I didn't want her to know what I was doing. She'd be furious, and find some way to stop me from going to China.
I knew it was risky. Hell, it was crazy to put myself out there like this and expect nothing to go wrong, but we couldn't keep letting them call the shots. That was how we would end up losing this battle.
I left APO, heading for one of the many airstrips I knew was under the CIA's control. Jack had called ahead and told the pilots to expect me, and that we were headed for Shanghai. Once I was on the plane, I called Renee.
"Hello?" she answered almost immediately.
"It's me – I need a favor," I replied.
"Of course," she answered, sensing the urgency in my tone.
"Our investigation into Prophet Five is at a standstill – they're one step ahead of us and we need some way to get the advantage back."
"Is this about what Sydney wanted?" she questioned suddenly.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"She called me last night – she said that she might need some outside help in tracking someone that works for Prophet Five. That you couldn't do it because of her father," Renee explained.
"Yeah, actually, that's part of it," I replied, not really surprised that Sydney had been thinking the same thing I was thinking. If I couldn't go on missions and help her out, Renee might be able to. "But right now I need something else from you."
"What is it?"
"How soon can you get to Shanghai?"
OOOOO
Renee and I met up in China. She seemed glad to see me, and glad to know that everyone was all right. After all, the last time I'd talked to her was shortly after Sydney had been rescued after Prophet Five kidnapped her.
I explained what I could about Cho, saying that he was the only one we knew was actually a member of Prophet Five's core. I told her that Jack had finally given us permission to question him, as long as we could keep the rest of Prophet Five from finding out what we were up to.
"Do we know where he is?" she questioned, looking over the material I brought with me from LA. She'd hired a driver, and he was presently headed towards Cho's club.
"He's either at the nightclub or at his house," I replied. "According to the surveillance we put at his house, he just got back from some meeting in Barcelona."
"You didn't know about the meeting?" she asked, glancing up at me.
"No," I replied. "We just get bits and pieces from the bugs. So far, we haven't gotten anything substantial. Did you get my message and those two photos?"
"Yes, and I don't recognize either of the men in them," she replied, shaking her head and turning her attention back to the information on Cho. "Does his daughter work for him?"
"We don't know," I replied. "I don't think so – it didn't seem like it when I met with her." Renee nodded a little, eyes scanning the information.
"All right. We'll interrogate him, see if we can learn anything."
Cho's car was at the club. I figured that it would be too much of a risk to try and talk to him there, so we waited until he left later that evening. Luckily, he headed home. There were only a couple of guards posted there, and Renee took them both out easily with a tranq gun from across the street.
I let her lead the way into the house, trying to stay as out of sight as possible. It was interesting watching her in the field. Her training didn't seem all that different from Sydney's, but she used it in a completely different way. Renee's style wasn't quite as smooth – she was more aggressive and less stealthy. She picked the lock on the door, letting the two of us into the house. Cho was upstairs in his office, the light still on despite the hour. She led the way, drawing her gun again and stopping at the top of the stairs.
"Okay," she said quietly. "Ready?" I just nodded. She took a breath and swung out around the corner. "Don't move!" I followed her, seeing a very startled Yeong Cho at the other end of the room. He stood beside his desk, several papers in his hands. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and he wore a pair of wire-rimmed glasses.
He immediately spouted something about taking whatever we wanted, just leaving him alone, in rapid-fire Chinese. Renee shot me a glance, obviously unable to translate his outburst.
"We're not robbing you," I replied in English. "We just want to ask you a few questions."
"Questions about what?" he asked in the same language this time, his voice heavily accented.
"Prophet Five," Renee replied. He seemed to realize what was happening now, glancing at me once more and then nodding. "We know you're involved – that you're one of the primary members."
"You were misinformed," he replied. "I run a cell for them, yes. But I am not one of The Twelve." He laughed a little at that, shaking his head.
"Who are they?" I questioned.
"I don't know," he said with a shrug, still smiling as if this whole thing was funny. I looked over at Renee, seeing that she obviously didn't believe him. She swore in French, shaking her head.
"If you don't start talking-" she started.
"You'll what?" Cho interrupted. "You'll torture me?" He shook his head, nodding to a cleverly concealed camera in the corner of the room. "They already know you're here – they're on the way right now to do the same thing. Why should I talk to you?"
"Then come with us – we can get you out of this," I suggested. He shook his head.
"You never get out of this. You should know that by now," he replied. He set the papers down on the desk, looking to the large bay window behind him. "There is only one way out once they come for you."
"Wait!" Renee shouted, seeing what he intended to do before I did. He used one elbow to shatter the window, and didn't even look back over his shoulder before he jumped.
OOOOO
"You didn't get anything from him?" Jack questioned. I was back home, finally relaxing after suffering the wrath of Sydney for not telling her about the mission to China. She and Will had gone out for a walk before he had to leave that evening. Even though the original reason he'd been put into the program was because of the Covenant, which didn't even exist anymore, it was still dangerous having him there now that Prophet Five knew he was one of Sydney's weaknesses.
I heard all about the mission in Lisbon. Sydney assured me that she was all right, and she had no idea what Anna sprayed her with in one of the train cars. It was a chemical agent of some kind, but it didn't seem to have any effect on her – MS had checked her out right after she got back. They'd managed to disarm the bomb in Will's head as well, but Anna got away with Page 47.
"No," I replied. "Just like Dean, he killed himself before we could learn anything. He wasn't even as highly placed as we thought – he claimed he didn't even know who The Twelve are."
"Which is quite possible," Jack replied with a sigh. "There were no complications?"
"No," I answered. "Sydney wasn't too happy with me."
"Did you expect her to be?" I didn't reply. "Either way, we knew it was a risk. We didn't come up with anything, and the chances we'll get away with something like that again are remote."
"Yeah, I know," I replied with a sigh. There was no way Jack was going to let me back into the field again, and I knew that. Still, I hated that I wasted my one chance to do something on a dead end. Cho was dead the second he hit the asphalt thirty feet below, having jumped out head-first.
"Either way, we will attempt to track Anna's movement. Obviously, Prophet Five wants Page 47 for something. She'll have to turn it over to them eventually, and when she does, we may be able to get another lead."
"All right." We hung up, and I went back to thinking. Sydney took Isabelle with her when she and Will left. She'd invited me along, but I insisted she should spend some time with Will before he had to leave. They'd been friends since before I even met Sydney, and I didn't want to intrude.
I didn't want to spend all my time puzzling over this, but there were still some things I couldn't quite make sense of. For one, what was that meeting about in Cho's club? Did this 'experiment' they referenced have anything to do with their sudden recruitment of Anna? What was Prophet Five even after? What was their endgame? Why did they want Page 47?
And what the hell had they sprayed Sydney with on that train?
