"Finishing? As in...finishing?!" Sydney couldn't believe what she had just heard. "Why can we do this suddenly? I mean, what kind of new intel did we." "None," Devlin said, not wanting to look Sydney in the eyes. "We are being forced to because of Mr. Tippin's story that was published this morning." "Wait," Sydney said. "I don't understand. You wrote a story that makes it suddenly possible to bring SD-6 down?" "Um, yeah, but it wasn't supposed to get published. I told them not to unless something happened to me, and they thought something did when I didn't come back for a few days." "How could you even know.nevermind." Sydney was in no mood to deal with Will. "If we can take down SD-6 now, because of what Will's story says, why couldn't we have done it before this?" Devlin knew Sydney would ask this; she was too smart to let it slide. "Um, well, we could have taken SD-6 down months ago Agent Bristow. We were using intel that they provided us to track other Alliance organi." "Months ago!? What do you MEAN we could have taken them down months ago? How could you possibly justify putting me through this hell any longer?" Sydney was shrieking and screaming at the top of her lungs. Everyone in the office turned to Devlin's office, wondering what the outburst behind the closed door and blinds was about. "You have no idea what I go through to keep myself going each day! You have no clue what it takes out of you to be a double agen." "Ms. Bristow," Devlin interrupted her in a harsh tone. "You know better than anyone the importance of timing in a situation like this and ." "And you knew too didn't you?" Sydney's glare was directed towards her father. "You knew it could have been finished but that wasn't enough! You had to let Vaughn almost DIE before it was time to take those bastards down! You know what a hell my life is and you." Sydney began to sob and became unable to talk. She couldn't believe her father would betray her like that. Jack was unable to look at Sydney. He had known about the CIA's ability to take down SD-6 for months, but he knew Devlin wasn't going to give the order to do it yet. If he had told Sydney, it would have been pointless. "Sydney, you have to understand that I ." Jack tried to explain to his daughter. "I don't HAVE to understand anything! You people are." "Sydney, let's go for a walk," Vaughn stopped her in mid sentence and placed a hand on her waist to lead her out of the room. She looked at him and he looked at her with only the understanding that could come from his eyes. She agreed and left Devlin's office with Vaughn following her. "I am going to be there," Jack told Devlin. "When the takedown happens." "Jack, I can't let." "I owe it to Sydney to see that Sloane gets taken care of." Devlin knew that there was no arguing with Jack. "Just be careful Jack." ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* Jack walked through the doors of Credit Dauphine at 7:45 am. As he took the elevator ride down to sub level 6, he knew what he was going to do before the CIA got there, and he knew Devlin knew too on some level, and hadn't even tried to stop him. As he walked out of the scanning room, Jack looked over to Sloane's office. He was on the phone. Jack looked at his watch. 7:52. The CIA were going to be in this office in exactly 8 minutes. Now was as good a time as any. He walked over to Sloane's office and knocked softly. "Come in." 'That man's voice is like evil itself,' Jack thought as he opened the door. "Do you have a minute?" Jack asked Sloane. "Of course. But first, I trust you've read the paper this morning?" "That's why I came," Jack replied. "I hope there's a good explanation for this Jack, because, if anything that reporter wrote is true." Sloane stopped in mid sentence. Jack had pulled his gun on him and was pointing straight for his head. ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* "Sydney, if your father had told you, it just would have been worse for you, you know that right?" Vaughn was trying desperately to get Sydney to calm down. It was nearly 8 am and she hadn't stopped crying for almost an hour. "I know that. I know I'm being stupid and irrational but I just can't believe that I could have been living a normal life by now! Its so..unfair." Sydney was beginning to stop crying. The realization that SD- 6 would be out of her life in a short while was too much. With it gone, she would have no more reasons to hide anything from anyone. She was a sick combination of anger and happiness. All of these emotions came out as an hour-long cry that Vaughn had held her for in his office. There was a knock on his office door and Sydney didn't bother to raise her head from Vaughn's lap; her job was done, she didn't need to worry about protocol now. She glanced up at the clock and saw it was 8:05. She wondered when the takedown was scheduled to happen. She knew she would have no part in the actual siege of Credit Dauphine, the CIA had a special unit for that. "Come in," Vaughn said to the knocker. The door slowly opened to reveal Devlin. He looked disheveled and uncomfortable. "What's.." Sydney began. "It's over," Devlin suddenly said, looking past both Sydney and Vaughn. "SD-6 is over. The extraction team recovered everyone alive, except for two people. Sydney, I'm sorry," Devlin began to talk faster. "Sloane was killed, and, and, ...so was your father." ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^* "You must take me for a fool Jack. You think I didn't realize what you were going to come in here and do this morning?" Arvin Sloane leaned forward in his chair; he still had his hands on his lap. "Jack, I thought you knew me better," -two shots sounded from underneath Sloane's desk. Jack had hesitated too long. The one time he hesitated was the wrong time. He fell to the floor, already dead from 2 shots to the head. Sloane got up and stood over Jack's body. "Sorry old friend, but your daughter will join you soon enough," Sloane's last words escaped his lips as Dixon shot him once in the head. "Sydney is a good person," Dixon said to Sloane's corpse. "You will never hurt her again." ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*