Okay, folks, yes, this is the next chapter. ^^ and no, i did not fall down some hole ^~
Chapter Ten
"Brilliant light…oh so bright…"
When Valenti returned, he found Donovan not buckled to the chair but was now rocking back and forth. His face was buried and there was a platter of food in front of him, only half eaten. At least they've thought of feeding him, Valenti thought crudely. Tamakawa had left the room for a brief moment, sweating from the frustration and pressure.
"What's wrong with him?" he demanded to Jason.
Jason turned to face Valenti, his eyes wide with confusion. "I don't know, sir," he replied in a dry voice. "When you left, Tamakawa tried to get some more information before I called it breaks for now. He ate a bit of some of the stuff we got from the café here before starting to rock back and forth like that." He gestured helplessly at him. "I called for Barnett to get here as fast as she could…but she is taking a century to get here…"
"Lights…lights…extinguish light…squander the elites…"
"What the hell is he babbling about?" Valenti demanded.
"I don't know, sir…"
"Well, try!"
Donovan continued to mumble to himself, babbling uncontrollably.
Just then, Doctor Tamakawa entered the room in a hurry to see Donovan in his state. He quickly pulled on the earpiece that lay on the desk and looked at the window where Valenti and Jason were standing and arguing in. "Barnett told me about it. Geez, what the hell do I do now?" he demanded.
"You're the shrink, dammit, not us," Valenti said wryly, "just ask some questions."
Tamakawa tugged at his collar and bent over to Donovan, who was still rocking back and forth. Many theories came to mind at why he was suddenly acting like he was cracking up. Of course, that was not the official term, but Tamakawa supposed that his work was beginning to show a little bit of progress. Unfortunately, he didn't know whether it was him or the hypnosis that was doing this. Nonetheless, he had to wrap this up quickly.
"Donovan," he said slowly, "what are you talking about?"
Donovan looked around, his eyes glazed over. "Bright lights…eliminate targets…squander the elites…prove the leader down…take him out…kick him out…bring down the domain and prove him wrong…crucify him! Crucify him!"
At the same time, Nadia entered the room, her face all pink.
"Where were you?" Valenti demanded.
She yanked him a distance away from Jason, who was busy trying to understand what Donovan was babbling about. "I just got a call from my informant in the Yukon," she told him in a low voice. "There's some movement going on up there. She said about twenty people just arrived this afternoon in black cars carrying various pieces of equipment. She also said something about being in the CIA."
"What?!" Valenti cried. "There is no operation going on right now in the Yukon as far as we are concerned! Who the hell would authorize something like this…???"
"They mentioned being in the MSS."
"We have no MSS here!" he cried incredulously.
"Precisely," she concurred flatly, her expression grim. "I think it's the alliance, sir, or someone working with our enemies." She sighed and flung her hands out in frustration. "I don't know what they're doing up there or what they want up there, but whatever it is, it isn't good." She shook her head vigorously. "What's up with Donovan?"
"He's gone whacked."
"You better make Tamakawa terminate this little thing…now." Her grim expression slowly grew into concern. "The hypnosis may be getting to him…" She calmly looked out to the other room where Tamakawa was pressing on with some questions. She also observed Donovan carefully, his lips moving like a madman. "What is Donovan saying anyways?"
"Something about bright lights, bringing down the leader, scattering the elites and proving something to someone," Valenti said with a shrug and a defiant look. "I think he is seriously losing it. You're right…I think we should terminate this right now…"
"Wait!" Nadia walked up quickly and took an extra headgear and adjusted the mic to her lips. Jason turned to Valenti for some initial support but in return, got a shrug of confusion. "Tamakawa, ask Donovan now about Sydney Bristow and what he was supposed to do and why," she told him in a quick, breathless voice.
"But we tried!" Valenti protested.
Nadia raised a hand calmly. "Hang on."
"Donovan," Tamakawa said wearily, "why did you try to eliminate Sydney Bristow."
"Elite…suspicions around her…bring message to leader…"
"Donovan, who do you work for?"
"One in twelve, twelve in one…one in twelve, twelve in one…"
Valenti grabbed the headgear from Nadia and told Tamakawa, "Terminate this interrogation."
"Sir?"
"Just do it!" he spat, throwing the headgear to the table. Jason winced and ran to check it out whether it had any damages. As Tamakawa set to work, Valenti turned back to Nadia, who was massaging her ear from Valenti's sudden movement. "What exactly was that supposed to prove anyhow?" he demanded to her.
"He's babbling," she said slowly, "the words he's using…it fits the situation."
"What do you mean?"
"He just confirmed that eliminating Sydney was to "prove a point" and that they wanted to "throw him out" and "crucify him" which obviously is referring to Sloane," she continued. "He refers to Sydney as an elite and that by killing her, they…whoever is his boss…would bring out a message to Sloane, which proves that theory."
"One in twelve, twelve in one?" Jason asked.
"That, I may have to look into," Nadia replied, "if Agent Valenti would let me."
"Please do," he said wearily, wiping his forehead with a tissue. "I am getting too tired for this."
At the same time, Donovan snapped back to his old self, his glazed eyes returning to his fiery features. "Where the hell am I? What am I doing here? What happened?" he shouted as Tamakawa slipped out of the room and two guards came in to replace him. "What the hell? Come back here, you big doughnut! I'm not done with you."
"Sir," the guard said flatly, "please finish the meal."
Donovan looked down at his half-eaten plate, picked it up and threw it at the guards. The guards dodged the throw and the food covered the door. "Hell no!"
As the guards went over to calm him down, the door flung open and in came Weiss. He was tired and sweating from his plight down the staircase. He also looked terribly distressed. Valenti remained impassive for he too, was too tired to snap at anyone. Jason was still busy fidgeting at the headgear that it was only Nadia who looked up and asked, "What's up?"
"There's this guy," Weiss said breathlessly, "inquiring about Vaughn's files."
"Who?"
"This journalist…a Will Tippin?"
Nadia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose while Weiss steadied his breathing and his balance. "Vaughn told me about him," she said slowly after a while of thinking. "He met him the day before or somewhere around that time. He said he didn't really like Vaughn, like he was overly possessive of Sydney or something like that. Go figure this guy would be snooping around for stuff about Uncle."
Weiss shrugged. "I got someone on his case. If he makes wrong move…" He trailed off.
Valenti sighed and got to his feet. "We can't do a lot now," he finally said wearily. "I'll go speak to Devlin, see if he can give us some more guidance. Jason, watch our little rebel in there. Weiss, keep watching those spikes in SD-6's server…Nadia, check out what your contacts know about the Alliance and try to figure out this 'one in twelve, twelve in one' business."
"Yes, sir," they all murmured.
"How are things going?"
"According to plan, sir."
"Good, good…Sloane will be in for a terrible surprise."
"Yes, sir."
"Have you found Folken?"
"Still searching, sir."
"Well, hurry!"
"Yes sir."
"We must do this quickly…before others catch on…"
Sloane's expression was unreadable.
Sydney sat before Sloane across his great glassy, her hands folded neatly on her lap to avoid shaking and fidgeting nervously. She was indeed nervous---the outcomes of this was either she won his support of be killed for some high ordered treason. This scared her; she had been downstairs in the 'Conversation Room' once before and she didn't want to see it again for as long as she lived.
She wondered how her father was doing checking out with Hasina, Yalila and Carl. She didn't personally know them but she had some reference to them from time to time. She wondered how Weiss and that strange girl Nadia were doing trying to locate their dilemmas. She knew that they were trying their very best. Her thoughts eventually led to Vaughn. She wondered how he was doing when realization struck her. Of course he'd be trying to find a way to get Sydney out of this mess. He was always trying to save her.
How sweet, she thought.
"Hmph."
She blinked away from her daydreams and looked at her boss. He was now musing to himself, his facial expression shifting slightly to an extent of discomfort. She could tell that Sloane was clearly not pleased at what had happened and he was certainly determined to keep his emotions under check. It was clear though that he didn't want this to go unpunished.
"Sir?" she asked questioningly.
"This is a grave situation you've brought to me, Sydney," Sloane said gruffly, leaning over his desk, folding his fingers. His expression shifted to unclear dubiousness. "I'm surprised you didn't bring this to my attention sooner."
Sydney swallowed. "I just thought I could shake them off on my own…"
"Nonetheless, now that you have made me aware of this matter," he continued, "we must act accordingly. There is a security leak amoung the agents…we must find this leak and plug it up as fast as we could before they spread some deep issues towards whomever it is they are working for. You say that they are intercepting those unknown fluxes and spreading them throughout our server…I'll have Marshall begin to block these fluxes as soon as possible." He walked over and looked at Sydney seriously. "Sydney, I want you to smoke out this person. I don't care how…just make sure it's done. I'll have security be watching out for our person as well."
Sydney stood up. "Yes, sir."
Before she could leave, Sloane took Sydney's ice-cold hands. "And Sydney," he said, "good job."
Sydney nodded, too confused, and left.
Jack was passing by Sloane's office on his way to the computer room when he saw the last transaction between Sydney and Sloane. Jack stopped for a moment and remembered that Sydney was going to tell Sloane about the mysterious person gunning after Sydney. He thought for a moment that Sloane might ship her off from being crazy and decided to check it out for a while.
Sloane took Sydney's hand and had a sincere look on his face.
At first, Jack felt the urge to charge in and pick a fight with Sloane himself. He supposed that was the parent in him boiling at the way Sloane looked and acted with Sydney, as if he was her father. Oh, he could feel his temperature rise…but then he forced his own training and discipline upon his raging emotions. He trusted Sydney and he knew Sloane all too well---and he was a trained CIA agent who was weathered with experience.
He pretended to re-arrange his papers on a nearby counter as Sydney quickly exited Sloane's room. She quickly but efficiently walked over to her father. "I am going to cringe every day of my life until this entire thing ends," she told him softly as she looked around. "What are you doing?"
"I'm headed towards the computer room to talk to Marshall," he replied stoically.
"Funny, because Sloane was just about to order you there, anyways."
"What can I say?" Jack asked, clearing his things. "I know Sloane."
Sydney shrugged, finding nothing to reply to his sentence. I hate it when he does that, she thought ruefully. "I'll check it out down here," she told him. "I think I'm in Yalila's good graces…I'll go over and talk to her." With one final look at her father, she started walking through the aisles of little cubicles towards Yalila.
Jack nodded and turned back to Sloane's office. Sloane was watching Jack and Sydney conversing and that made Jack feel a strange tingling sensation run down his spine. He had known Sloane for years but he had never felt---or allowed to feel---that sensation run down him. I'm losing my touch, he thought to himself bitterly as he set a curt nod to Sloane before walking off. This isn't good. Ever since I began to get closer to Sydney I've…I don't know…
Enough analysing you, his inner voice told him sternly.
Jack knocked on Marshall's door. The door was partially open and when Marshall didn't respond, he let himself in. Marshall's office was slightly a mess; his equipment was cluttered throughout the long table to the wall and his plastic chair was lying adrift somewhere near it. A jar of candy was partially open near the computer where Marshall was, his earphones on as he busily typed away. He was completely oblivious to Jack's presence.
Jack approached Marshall quietly and peered over, examining his work. Marshall was apparently on the SD-6 server, examining some logs and backtracking the system. Impressive work, Marshall, he thought, but I need some backdrop of some of our co-workers. "Good job, Marshall," he told him out loud, tapping him on the shoulder.
Marshall nearly jumped a kilometre away. "Oh…oh…hi, Mr. Bristow…."
"Marshall."
"C-Can I do, um, anything for you, sir?" he asked, sliding the headphones off his ears. He looked slightly embarrassed. He then lifted his jar of candies towards Jack with a smile. "Um..candy?"
"I'll pass, thank you," Jack replied patiently. "Marshall, I would like you to do me a favour."
"Sure, um, Mr. Bristow, er, anything!"
Jack leaned over the table and looked at the computer screen, his eyes narrowed from the glare of the screen. He analysed Marshall's work briefly and realized that the backdoor that the CIA had created months before was not noticeable at the moment. "I want you to run through a diagnostic of the remaining computers operational down here," he told Marshall grimly.
"Um, sure, but, well, I'm not sure how much that could help…"
"Just do it, Marshall," Jack said exasperatedly, trying hard not to sigh in his own impatience. "Sloane put me in charge of this and I want to check out a hunch. There must be some way we can figure out whether the fluxes are hitting all the computers. It's obvious that whoever the leak is, the flux is avoiding their station."
"Lemme check that out," Marshall replied, his fingers hitting home key before he was even finished. He quickly zoomed through various computer screens with just a few keys. He was so fast that even Jack couldn't keep up, which just earned Jack's respect on how quickly Marshall could get things done. A schematic of the office floor appeared in no time on the computer screen. Marshall quickly zoomed in for a better view. Some cubicles were highlighted red.
"The cubicles that are, you know, blinking red and makes you kind of remind yourself Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Marshall explained. When he saw Jack's mild perplexed look, he went back into his serious tone. "Those are the last three cubicles that are working…um…Yalila, Hasina and Carl. I've been trying to figure out why the fluxes haven't hit them that quickly. Um…let me check something out…"
Again, he was on the computer. This time, the layout when black and neon green, like a primary outline of a computer three-dimensional scene. Wild sparks of blue lightning went through each cubicle like a mouse in a maze. Jack was surprised how intricate the pattern of movement was. Of course, the flux would miss those three cubicles, which he found not surprising. Whoever made the flux was good at what they did; it even had a pattern to it.
"I could check out each of their stations separately," Marshall said finally as he watched the fluxes carefully. "I mean, if their cubicles are being excluded from this little, um, parade, maybe there's something hooked up to their CPU or something…" He trailed off, his focus more on the pattern that the fluxes were generating. Jack frowned at Marshall, ready to say something, when he too, picked up what he was seeing.
Every time the fluxes passed by the three cubicles, a little spark would hit two of the cubicles…but one of them would remain untouched. The spark was small but significant enough to figure out who was the mole….
"Whose cubicle is that?" Jack demanded.
"Um….it's…" Marshall scratched his head, thinking.
"Who is it, Marshall?" Jack pressed desperately, carefully trying not to break the desk off with his hands. He was pressing onto it so hard in anticipation that he finally feared he would break it. Think faster, he urged silently. We don't have a lot of time…especially Sydney…."Marshall, please, we need to know whose cubicle it is."
"It…oh! I remember now! McGregor!"
Jack's eyes widened slightly. "Yalila? The newbie?"
"Yeah, I remember. Her computer crashed a few weeks ago," Marshall explained quickly, gesturing with his hands. "I had to go and fix it…and now that you mention it, I did find something weird in her computer. When I was fixing the CPU, I came across some strange little black box about 4 by 4 attached to the motherboard. I assumed it was jut a new Pentium attached to the wrong section…" He sulked and his voice trailed off.
Jack understood what that meant. Marshall was so good at what he did that there was a slim margin of error in his duties. A mistake to Marshall was like Jack being uncovered as a double agent. Jack nodded stiffly although Marshall was too busy sulking at his mistake to see it. "Look, Marshall, it's not your fault," Jack said, trying to sound reassuring. "Everyone makes mistakes. I won't tell Sloane about this little part."
Marshall shrugged in defeat but nonetheless agreed to it.
Now Jack was worried. Sydney had gone over to Yalila to check something out and do some undercover work. Now that Jack knew who the receiver was, it was going to be hard to lure her to a corner to get the information out. He recalled briefly that Valenti and Nadia were busy with the interrogation of the hit man and he wondered whether they had gotten anywhere.
"Look, Marshall, I want you to do something," he said in a serious tone. "I don't want you to breathe a word about this little…discovery of ours. We don't want her to get a heads-up and disappear… that will make our jobs a lot more difficult than it already is."
"No…no problem," Marshall agreed.
"Good." Jack sighed inwardly. How was he going to tell Sydney without Yalila noticing?
Chapter Ten
"Brilliant light…oh so bright…"
When Valenti returned, he found Donovan not buckled to the chair but was now rocking back and forth. His face was buried and there was a platter of food in front of him, only half eaten. At least they've thought of feeding him, Valenti thought crudely. Tamakawa had left the room for a brief moment, sweating from the frustration and pressure.
"What's wrong with him?" he demanded to Jason.
Jason turned to face Valenti, his eyes wide with confusion. "I don't know, sir," he replied in a dry voice. "When you left, Tamakawa tried to get some more information before I called it breaks for now. He ate a bit of some of the stuff we got from the café here before starting to rock back and forth like that." He gestured helplessly at him. "I called for Barnett to get here as fast as she could…but she is taking a century to get here…"
"Lights…lights…extinguish light…squander the elites…"
"What the hell is he babbling about?" Valenti demanded.
"I don't know, sir…"
"Well, try!"
Donovan continued to mumble to himself, babbling uncontrollably.
Just then, Doctor Tamakawa entered the room in a hurry to see Donovan in his state. He quickly pulled on the earpiece that lay on the desk and looked at the window where Valenti and Jason were standing and arguing in. "Barnett told me about it. Geez, what the hell do I do now?" he demanded.
"You're the shrink, dammit, not us," Valenti said wryly, "just ask some questions."
Tamakawa tugged at his collar and bent over to Donovan, who was still rocking back and forth. Many theories came to mind at why he was suddenly acting like he was cracking up. Of course, that was not the official term, but Tamakawa supposed that his work was beginning to show a little bit of progress. Unfortunately, he didn't know whether it was him or the hypnosis that was doing this. Nonetheless, he had to wrap this up quickly.
"Donovan," he said slowly, "what are you talking about?"
Donovan looked around, his eyes glazed over. "Bright lights…eliminate targets…squander the elites…prove the leader down…take him out…kick him out…bring down the domain and prove him wrong…crucify him! Crucify him!"
At the same time, Nadia entered the room, her face all pink.
"Where were you?" Valenti demanded.
She yanked him a distance away from Jason, who was busy trying to understand what Donovan was babbling about. "I just got a call from my informant in the Yukon," she told him in a low voice. "There's some movement going on up there. She said about twenty people just arrived this afternoon in black cars carrying various pieces of equipment. She also said something about being in the CIA."
"What?!" Valenti cried. "There is no operation going on right now in the Yukon as far as we are concerned! Who the hell would authorize something like this…???"
"They mentioned being in the MSS."
"We have no MSS here!" he cried incredulously.
"Precisely," she concurred flatly, her expression grim. "I think it's the alliance, sir, or someone working with our enemies." She sighed and flung her hands out in frustration. "I don't know what they're doing up there or what they want up there, but whatever it is, it isn't good." She shook her head vigorously. "What's up with Donovan?"
"He's gone whacked."
"You better make Tamakawa terminate this little thing…now." Her grim expression slowly grew into concern. "The hypnosis may be getting to him…" She calmly looked out to the other room where Tamakawa was pressing on with some questions. She also observed Donovan carefully, his lips moving like a madman. "What is Donovan saying anyways?"
"Something about bright lights, bringing down the leader, scattering the elites and proving something to someone," Valenti said with a shrug and a defiant look. "I think he is seriously losing it. You're right…I think we should terminate this right now…"
"Wait!" Nadia walked up quickly and took an extra headgear and adjusted the mic to her lips. Jason turned to Valenti for some initial support but in return, got a shrug of confusion. "Tamakawa, ask Donovan now about Sydney Bristow and what he was supposed to do and why," she told him in a quick, breathless voice.
"But we tried!" Valenti protested.
Nadia raised a hand calmly. "Hang on."
"Donovan," Tamakawa said wearily, "why did you try to eliminate Sydney Bristow."
"Elite…suspicions around her…bring message to leader…"
"Donovan, who do you work for?"
"One in twelve, twelve in one…one in twelve, twelve in one…"
Valenti grabbed the headgear from Nadia and told Tamakawa, "Terminate this interrogation."
"Sir?"
"Just do it!" he spat, throwing the headgear to the table. Jason winced and ran to check it out whether it had any damages. As Tamakawa set to work, Valenti turned back to Nadia, who was massaging her ear from Valenti's sudden movement. "What exactly was that supposed to prove anyhow?" he demanded to her.
"He's babbling," she said slowly, "the words he's using…it fits the situation."
"What do you mean?"
"He just confirmed that eliminating Sydney was to "prove a point" and that they wanted to "throw him out" and "crucify him" which obviously is referring to Sloane," she continued. "He refers to Sydney as an elite and that by killing her, they…whoever is his boss…would bring out a message to Sloane, which proves that theory."
"One in twelve, twelve in one?" Jason asked.
"That, I may have to look into," Nadia replied, "if Agent Valenti would let me."
"Please do," he said wearily, wiping his forehead with a tissue. "I am getting too tired for this."
At the same time, Donovan snapped back to his old self, his glazed eyes returning to his fiery features. "Where the hell am I? What am I doing here? What happened?" he shouted as Tamakawa slipped out of the room and two guards came in to replace him. "What the hell? Come back here, you big doughnut! I'm not done with you."
"Sir," the guard said flatly, "please finish the meal."
Donovan looked down at his half-eaten plate, picked it up and threw it at the guards. The guards dodged the throw and the food covered the door. "Hell no!"
As the guards went over to calm him down, the door flung open and in came Weiss. He was tired and sweating from his plight down the staircase. He also looked terribly distressed. Valenti remained impassive for he too, was too tired to snap at anyone. Jason was still busy fidgeting at the headgear that it was only Nadia who looked up and asked, "What's up?"
"There's this guy," Weiss said breathlessly, "inquiring about Vaughn's files."
"Who?"
"This journalist…a Will Tippin?"
Nadia sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose while Weiss steadied his breathing and his balance. "Vaughn told me about him," she said slowly after a while of thinking. "He met him the day before or somewhere around that time. He said he didn't really like Vaughn, like he was overly possessive of Sydney or something like that. Go figure this guy would be snooping around for stuff about Uncle."
Weiss shrugged. "I got someone on his case. If he makes wrong move…" He trailed off.
Valenti sighed and got to his feet. "We can't do a lot now," he finally said wearily. "I'll go speak to Devlin, see if he can give us some more guidance. Jason, watch our little rebel in there. Weiss, keep watching those spikes in SD-6's server…Nadia, check out what your contacts know about the Alliance and try to figure out this 'one in twelve, twelve in one' business."
"Yes, sir," they all murmured.
"How are things going?"
"According to plan, sir."
"Good, good…Sloane will be in for a terrible surprise."
"Yes, sir."
"Have you found Folken?"
"Still searching, sir."
"Well, hurry!"
"Yes sir."
"We must do this quickly…before others catch on…"
Sloane's expression was unreadable.
Sydney sat before Sloane across his great glassy, her hands folded neatly on her lap to avoid shaking and fidgeting nervously. She was indeed nervous---the outcomes of this was either she won his support of be killed for some high ordered treason. This scared her; she had been downstairs in the 'Conversation Room' once before and she didn't want to see it again for as long as she lived.
She wondered how her father was doing checking out with Hasina, Yalila and Carl. She didn't personally know them but she had some reference to them from time to time. She wondered how Weiss and that strange girl Nadia were doing trying to locate their dilemmas. She knew that they were trying their very best. Her thoughts eventually led to Vaughn. She wondered how he was doing when realization struck her. Of course he'd be trying to find a way to get Sydney out of this mess. He was always trying to save her.
How sweet, she thought.
"Hmph."
She blinked away from her daydreams and looked at her boss. He was now musing to himself, his facial expression shifting slightly to an extent of discomfort. She could tell that Sloane was clearly not pleased at what had happened and he was certainly determined to keep his emotions under check. It was clear though that he didn't want this to go unpunished.
"Sir?" she asked questioningly.
"This is a grave situation you've brought to me, Sydney," Sloane said gruffly, leaning over his desk, folding his fingers. His expression shifted to unclear dubiousness. "I'm surprised you didn't bring this to my attention sooner."
Sydney swallowed. "I just thought I could shake them off on my own…"
"Nonetheless, now that you have made me aware of this matter," he continued, "we must act accordingly. There is a security leak amoung the agents…we must find this leak and plug it up as fast as we could before they spread some deep issues towards whomever it is they are working for. You say that they are intercepting those unknown fluxes and spreading them throughout our server…I'll have Marshall begin to block these fluxes as soon as possible." He walked over and looked at Sydney seriously. "Sydney, I want you to smoke out this person. I don't care how…just make sure it's done. I'll have security be watching out for our person as well."
Sydney stood up. "Yes, sir."
Before she could leave, Sloane took Sydney's ice-cold hands. "And Sydney," he said, "good job."
Sydney nodded, too confused, and left.
Jack was passing by Sloane's office on his way to the computer room when he saw the last transaction between Sydney and Sloane. Jack stopped for a moment and remembered that Sydney was going to tell Sloane about the mysterious person gunning after Sydney. He thought for a moment that Sloane might ship her off from being crazy and decided to check it out for a while.
Sloane took Sydney's hand and had a sincere look on his face.
At first, Jack felt the urge to charge in and pick a fight with Sloane himself. He supposed that was the parent in him boiling at the way Sloane looked and acted with Sydney, as if he was her father. Oh, he could feel his temperature rise…but then he forced his own training and discipline upon his raging emotions. He trusted Sydney and he knew Sloane all too well---and he was a trained CIA agent who was weathered with experience.
He pretended to re-arrange his papers on a nearby counter as Sydney quickly exited Sloane's room. She quickly but efficiently walked over to her father. "I am going to cringe every day of my life until this entire thing ends," she told him softly as she looked around. "What are you doing?"
"I'm headed towards the computer room to talk to Marshall," he replied stoically.
"Funny, because Sloane was just about to order you there, anyways."
"What can I say?" Jack asked, clearing his things. "I know Sloane."
Sydney shrugged, finding nothing to reply to his sentence. I hate it when he does that, she thought ruefully. "I'll check it out down here," she told him. "I think I'm in Yalila's good graces…I'll go over and talk to her." With one final look at her father, she started walking through the aisles of little cubicles towards Yalila.
Jack nodded and turned back to Sloane's office. Sloane was watching Jack and Sydney conversing and that made Jack feel a strange tingling sensation run down his spine. He had known Sloane for years but he had never felt---or allowed to feel---that sensation run down him. I'm losing my touch, he thought to himself bitterly as he set a curt nod to Sloane before walking off. This isn't good. Ever since I began to get closer to Sydney I've…I don't know…
Enough analysing you, his inner voice told him sternly.
Jack knocked on Marshall's door. The door was partially open and when Marshall didn't respond, he let himself in. Marshall's office was slightly a mess; his equipment was cluttered throughout the long table to the wall and his plastic chair was lying adrift somewhere near it. A jar of candy was partially open near the computer where Marshall was, his earphones on as he busily typed away. He was completely oblivious to Jack's presence.
Jack approached Marshall quietly and peered over, examining his work. Marshall was apparently on the SD-6 server, examining some logs and backtracking the system. Impressive work, Marshall, he thought, but I need some backdrop of some of our co-workers. "Good job, Marshall," he told him out loud, tapping him on the shoulder.
Marshall nearly jumped a kilometre away. "Oh…oh…hi, Mr. Bristow…."
"Marshall."
"C-Can I do, um, anything for you, sir?" he asked, sliding the headphones off his ears. He looked slightly embarrassed. He then lifted his jar of candies towards Jack with a smile. "Um..candy?"
"I'll pass, thank you," Jack replied patiently. "Marshall, I would like you to do me a favour."
"Sure, um, Mr. Bristow, er, anything!"
Jack leaned over the table and looked at the computer screen, his eyes narrowed from the glare of the screen. He analysed Marshall's work briefly and realized that the backdoor that the CIA had created months before was not noticeable at the moment. "I want you to run through a diagnostic of the remaining computers operational down here," he told Marshall grimly.
"Um, sure, but, well, I'm not sure how much that could help…"
"Just do it, Marshall," Jack said exasperatedly, trying hard not to sigh in his own impatience. "Sloane put me in charge of this and I want to check out a hunch. There must be some way we can figure out whether the fluxes are hitting all the computers. It's obvious that whoever the leak is, the flux is avoiding their station."
"Lemme check that out," Marshall replied, his fingers hitting home key before he was even finished. He quickly zoomed through various computer screens with just a few keys. He was so fast that even Jack couldn't keep up, which just earned Jack's respect on how quickly Marshall could get things done. A schematic of the office floor appeared in no time on the computer screen. Marshall quickly zoomed in for a better view. Some cubicles were highlighted red.
"The cubicles that are, you know, blinking red and makes you kind of remind yourself Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," Marshall explained. When he saw Jack's mild perplexed look, he went back into his serious tone. "Those are the last three cubicles that are working…um…Yalila, Hasina and Carl. I've been trying to figure out why the fluxes haven't hit them that quickly. Um…let me check something out…"
Again, he was on the computer. This time, the layout when black and neon green, like a primary outline of a computer three-dimensional scene. Wild sparks of blue lightning went through each cubicle like a mouse in a maze. Jack was surprised how intricate the pattern of movement was. Of course, the flux would miss those three cubicles, which he found not surprising. Whoever made the flux was good at what they did; it even had a pattern to it.
"I could check out each of their stations separately," Marshall said finally as he watched the fluxes carefully. "I mean, if their cubicles are being excluded from this little, um, parade, maybe there's something hooked up to their CPU or something…" He trailed off, his focus more on the pattern that the fluxes were generating. Jack frowned at Marshall, ready to say something, when he too, picked up what he was seeing.
Every time the fluxes passed by the three cubicles, a little spark would hit two of the cubicles…but one of them would remain untouched. The spark was small but significant enough to figure out who was the mole….
"Whose cubicle is that?" Jack demanded.
"Um….it's…" Marshall scratched his head, thinking.
"Who is it, Marshall?" Jack pressed desperately, carefully trying not to break the desk off with his hands. He was pressing onto it so hard in anticipation that he finally feared he would break it. Think faster, he urged silently. We don't have a lot of time…especially Sydney…."Marshall, please, we need to know whose cubicle it is."
"It…oh! I remember now! McGregor!"
Jack's eyes widened slightly. "Yalila? The newbie?"
"Yeah, I remember. Her computer crashed a few weeks ago," Marshall explained quickly, gesturing with his hands. "I had to go and fix it…and now that you mention it, I did find something weird in her computer. When I was fixing the CPU, I came across some strange little black box about 4 by 4 attached to the motherboard. I assumed it was jut a new Pentium attached to the wrong section…" He sulked and his voice trailed off.
Jack understood what that meant. Marshall was so good at what he did that there was a slim margin of error in his duties. A mistake to Marshall was like Jack being uncovered as a double agent. Jack nodded stiffly although Marshall was too busy sulking at his mistake to see it. "Look, Marshall, it's not your fault," Jack said, trying to sound reassuring. "Everyone makes mistakes. I won't tell Sloane about this little part."
Marshall shrugged in defeat but nonetheless agreed to it.
Now Jack was worried. Sydney had gone over to Yalila to check something out and do some undercover work. Now that Jack knew who the receiver was, it was going to be hard to lure her to a corner to get the information out. He recalled briefly that Valenti and Nadia were busy with the interrogation of the hit man and he wondered whether they had gotten anywhere.
"Look, Marshall, I want you to do something," he said in a serious tone. "I don't want you to breathe a word about this little…discovery of ours. We don't want her to get a heads-up and disappear… that will make our jobs a lot more difficult than it already is."
"No…no problem," Marshall agreed.
"Good." Jack sighed inwardly. How was he going to tell Sydney without Yalila noticing?