A/N: Phew! I know it has been a really long time since I added on, but I'm hoping there are people who are still interested in finding out what happens. I also apologize for making this a short chapter, but hopefully you'll still enjoy it. R/R!

Chapter 5

            Sydney ran into Sloane's office out of breath. Sloane hung up his phone and approached her worriedly. "Sydney, what's wrong?"

            "I've been discovered," Sydney said angrily. "They sent Alliance agents to my house to spy on me."

            Sloane looked at Sydney calmly. "Tell me what happened." Sydney gave Sloane the quick version of what happened, without sparing any of the necessary details.

            Sloane nodded and rubbed his traditional stubble with his hand. "And you're sure it was Mr. Vaughn?"

            "Yes, and he was accompanied by a guy he referred to as Weiss. He also made a call while he was there to a man named Kendall," Sydney explained.

            "I see," Sloane said thoughtfully. He walked around and sat back at his desk. "It's obvious that you cannot return home. Do you know of any other places you can stay till your mission is complete?" Sydney pondered on this for a moment and shook her head. "What about your father?" Sloane asked cautiously, knowing he was treading on dangerous grounds.

            "No, out of the question," Sydney said animatedly.

            Sloane gave her a small smile. "Well, what about if you stay with me? We've got a free bedroom and I know Emily would love to see you more often."

            Sydney smiled. "I'd like that."

            Sloane smiled back. "Then it's settled. I'll see you this evening."

* * *

            "Never ever let me stalk a hot agent that is working for the enemy ever again!" Weiss said from his position in the hospital bed with his head wrapped in gauze. He had been diagnosed with a minor concussion and was free to go in a couple of hours.

            Vaughn laughed. "Don't you get it, Weiss? It means she likes you."

            Weiss gave Vaughn a feeble punch in the arm. "Yeah? Well then I hate to see her when she loves me." Weiss paused as the laughing ceased. "I really blew it didn't I?"

            Inside Vaughn knew that he had, but he wasn't about to say that allowed. "Nah, you've just made the situation more…interesting."

            "Interesting?" Weiss scoffed. "The last thing the CIA wanted was for Agent Bristow to know that she was being tailed. And what happened? She knows she's being tailed!"

            "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself," Vaughn said. "It's a minor setback. It wouldn't have been any different if you or some other agent had gone in there."

            "Right, Mike," Weiss said sarcastically but with a smile.

            Vaughn glanced at his watch. "Sorry, Weiss, but I got to go and give Kendall a full report." Vaughn stood up and walked away from the bed. "See ya, later!"

            "Later, Mike," Weiss called. "Oh and Mike?" Mike turned. "I was kidding about that whole stalking a hot agent thing." Mike rolled his eyes and left with a grin on his face.

* * *

            Jack Bristow stared at the two disks in front of him. These disks claimed to hold the truth. They were believed to answer all of Jack's unasked questions. They held his future life, for if SD-6 was really apart of the Alliance, Jack would be forced to live the life of a double agent. A life he did not yet know, but one that was at least ten times more risky than the life he knew now.

            Jack glanced around quickly and reached for the disk that the men claimed to hold the information to the CIA database. He pushed the disk inside the drive and waited a moment before opening the contents of the "A" drive. The screen was black for a moment and then words appeared in red on his screen: "Welcome to the Central Intelligence Agency."

            He hesitated a moment and then clicked an icon that said, "Search." A small blank bar appeared awaiting the keywords of his search. Jack thought a moment and then typed in "Devlin." An egg timer appeared as the search was process, a few seconds later, the search was completed with sixteen results.

            Jack went down the list. The CIA database had everything on Devlin. There were reports and debriefs, along with his driver's license, his life history, past employment, and even personal information such as his social security number, his address, his car's make and model, and his family. Jack stared at this information confused. He didn't know what to think. All of this information could have easily been faked, but to go through all this trouble was really extreme. Jack decided to put it to the test.

            He went back and renewed his search, but this time, he typed in "Jack Bristow." There were only six documents, but as Jack clicked on the results one by one, he found them to be accurate. The picture and information that was on his driver's license was even up to date. It wasn't until Jack read the last document that he felt his heart sink.

Item #: 124323

Jack D. Bristow

            Jack Donahue Bristow is currently a member of the Alliance, an agency controlled by twelve "SD" cells. He is presently working under SD cell number six, headed by Arvin Sloane. Jack Bristow is working as a field agent at this time and seems to be operating in close proximity with Arvin Sloane himself. It has been pressed upon him that he is working in an office as a subunit of the Central Intelligence Agency. Agent Bristow is unaware of the Alliance's deceit.

            Jack ejected the disk quickly. This wasn't what he expected to find. Wearily he took the second disk and performed the same tasks as before. The egg timer appeared once again. He tensed knowing that any minute it was about to stop. The screen turned white for a moment and then four words appeared glaringly on the screen. "The Alliance of Twelve."

            Jack did the search just as he did before. The Alliance pulled no information of either Devlin or Kendall, but when Jack typed in his own name, he found reports, debriefs, test results, letters of recommendations, and a folder complete with his background history. All the information that Jack had read about himself in both agencies were true, and presence of the two men on one disk and not the other was, of course, explainable.

            Jack decided to do one last search to make his research complete. He typed in the name of SD-6's latest query, Michael Vaughn. Everything that Jack read about him was just as Arvin Sloane had said, except the fact that he worked for the CIA and wasn't a traitor like Agent Jack Donahue Bristow.