Diane met Sydney out in the hallway. She had called earlier to let Sydney know that her husband was awake. As they headed towards Dixon's room, Sloane walked past them, but didn't look at them. When they got to the room, Diane opened it and waved Sydney in. "It's okay. Go on in. I'm going to go get some coffee."
"Okay," Sydney said, grateful for the time alone. She knew it had to be hard for Diane to leave him. "Thanks."
Dixon opened his eyes as she approached his bed. "Hey," she whispered.
"Hey," his strained voice replied.
"It's so good to see you." He looked like hell, but he was alive.
"You, too," her friend whispered.
She sat down next to him. "Dixon. Do you know what--Do you remember what happened?"
"The last thing I remember," he answered. "I was walking out and trying to link to the satellite. And that sweet smile of yours."
Sydney couldn't help it. She laughed and smiled. "Yup," Dixon said with his own smile. "There it is."
***
Later, Sydney walked into the hospital's parking garage. She was tired and ready to hit the bed. Sloane had sent her and Russek to Sweden to steal money back from Ineni Hassan. Vaughn had let her know that she was responsible for the bad blood between Hassan and SD-6. Hassan thought SD-6 was responsible for the nuclear core that she had stolen, so he had taken SD-6's money and not delivered on his last arms shipment before disappearing.
She was also happy. Dixon was alive! And he hadn't remembered; once more her cover had remained intact.
Her mind was lost in thoughts, which was it took her a moment to see the black car that pulled up in front of her slowly. Two men got out and started approaching her. Sydney's instincts told her that running instead of fighting was the smarter option.
She began walking in the other direction; she could hear the car following. Then, she heard the men begin to run after her, so she began running, too.
Another car surprised her, coming out of nowhere. Her whole body screamed in pain when the car hit her, causing her to fly across the hood. She heard the two men get out of the car, but her aching body would not listen to her. The men held her down, and she heard the sound of a tranquilizing gun being shot before the world went black.
***
"Laura," Linda said, walking into her office. "There's a problem," she whispered. She put down a folder on Laura's desk. Laura looked at her, confusion written on her face. "Steven told me to give that to you," she said before walking away.
Laura's back muscles tensed. Steven was a friend of hers inside Security Section. She always made it a policy to make friends in all the different departments. They could save your ass when those at the top didn't give a damn. Reaching for the folder, Laura realized this time it might be her daughter who was in trouble.
Her heart stopped as she read the report. He daughter had been under suspicion for some time. Sloane had increased security reviews of her since Danny's death; a smart move on his part. Sydney was not the type to easily forgive betrayal; she was like him in that aspect.
She had passed a recent test, but they had detected a signal in Geneva. It originated from their location, and they knew it was not one of theirs. That meant either Sydney or Russek had sent the transmission. Sydney was the obvious choice.
Laura breathed in several deep breaths, reminding herself to keep her cool. She could not save her daughter if she was an emotional wreck. Cool thinking was Sydney's only hope.
Reaching back in one of desk drawers, she reached up and felt the tiny item tapes to the side of the desk. The adhesive made a ripping sound as she yanked at it. Her fingers wrapped around it, and she slid it into her pocket. It would help her hack into SD-6's computers.
Sydney might be the logical choice, but she wasn't the only one there. Laura walked out of her office and headed towards the server room.
***
Laura stared at her daughter. Sydney looked pale and shaken but otherwise okay. "Come to my office," she said, turning on her heels and walking away.
Sydney followed behind. She sighed as she sank down into the chair. "I don't think I ever want to go through that again."
Wanting to scream, Laura plastered a smile on her face. "I heard. Russek. Who would have thought it?"
"I never did," Sydney said, her eyebrows raised in concentration. She was wondering if Russek really was a mole. Laura wanted to shake her, to tell her that she had sacrificed him to save Sydney. He had not been an innocent, but Sydney would not appreciate that fact. He had not been guilty of the crime he had been executed for, and that was all that would matter to her.
Besides, the walls had ears in this place. It would not be safe to tell her here. Who knew if Sloane or McCullough was listening? If they were, and she made a slip of the tongue, she and Sydney both would be dead.
Dead by the slow, torturous method that Russek was now enduring.
Laura also knew that she needed to get her own head straight before she talked to Sydney. She was emotionally drained from the changes in her life. She needed to be patient, to observe, to find out whom her daughter was working for before she confronted her.
But that didn't mean she couldn't warn her of her folly.
"I thought Russek was a smarter man than that," Laura said with a tight smile on her face. "Being a double agent is a messy and dangerous life decision."
Sydney stared into her eyes. Biting her bottom lip, she nodded, "I bet it is," she whispered.
***
"That's impossible," Vaughn said. He was not looking at her today. She was behind his back, standing next to the flower stand, smelling all the varieties. He was sitting at a table, pretending to read a paper.
"I know," Sydney said, blinking away the tears in her eyes. "It is impossible. Russek didn't send a transmission to K-Directorate."
"So you think it was all a set up?" Vaughn asked her. She could hear the concern in his voice. She remembered their first conversation. She had ignored him for the most part as she wrote her deposition, and then she had been furious with him when he began questioning the glaring hole in her report.
She liked this man. She respected him. Not only because Jack did--which had helped her trust him faster--but because he cared, honestly cared, about her. He had even been willing to copy Jack's file for her, to help her find answers to questions she didn't even know to ask.
"No," she admitted. She didn't want to tell him this. Didn't want to believe it herself. "Mom found out about it somehow. She set Russek up to be the sacrificial lamb. She let them kill him, an innocent, for what I did."
She saw his shoulders stiffen. "You can't know that for sure."
"I know. Mom talked to me in her office afterwards. She told me that being a double agent was messy and dangerous and stupid. It was a warning to me," Sydney said. Her smile was sad. "I've heard enough warnings from my mother to recognize them, even when she tries to hide them."
"So you think your mother knows that you are a double?" Vaughn asked.
Sydney barely resisted shaking her head. "No, Vaughn, I don't think it. I know it."
***
"Damn." It was the only thing Jack could think to say. He stared out the windows at the darkened LA skyline. Vaughn had walked in as soon as the meeting had broken up, and Jack had known immediately that he wasn't going to like what the younger man had to say.
He turned to look at Vaughn and leaned back against the glass. He was exhausted. Today's meeting had been the most brutal to date. Bill was doing an excellent job of wearing down the witness--Jack. Now, he had to deal with the fact that his daughter had almost died today, and that his wife might know that Sydney was a double. "What do you think?"
Vaughn scratched the back of his head. "I think she may be right, Jack. We don't have any indication that another signal was sent, and we have no reason to believe that if they spotted the K-Directorate signal--"
"That they wouldn't have spotted ours," Jack said, agreeing. "Laura is brilliant with computers, and she might have some help inside that we don't know about."
Maybe a lover, the analytical part of his brain supplied. The animal side of his nature screamed in protest at the thought, but he tried to logically consider the issue. Laura might have a lover; she had lied about her job. His instincts rejected the idea though. She wouldn't take a lover anymore than he would.
"So Laura knows," he whispered. Maybe it was all finally coming to a close. Maybe all the lying would soon be over with forever.
He wondered why he didn't feel better about it.
***
Sloane stared at her from across his desk. Laura knew that she was presenting him with the image of a calm, cool professional. Inside, she was a cauldron of emotions. Jack had not been home for the last week because of a sudden business trip. Her daughter was a double agent for some undetermined agency. And she felt like her life was about to collapse around her.
"Ineni Hassan doesn't just have a new name," Sloane told her. "He has a new face and is living in Havana."
"How do you know this?" Laura asked him, surprised by the intel. "Sydney hasn't gotten back from Semba yet."
Sloane shook his head. "We got an unexpected source. He told us what we need to know. Hassan is now using the alias Nebseni Sahd, and, as you know, he broke an agreement with SD-6. He has stolen from us. The whole community is watching. We need to set an example with Hassan."
Laura's stomach twisted. She knew what was coming. Sloane had picked her to be the example maker. "Any intel about where in Havana he might be?"
"No, we don't know." Sloane stood up and walked around his desk. Leaning back on it, he told her, "That's why I'm sending you to Cuba. I need you to rendezvous with the usual contacts. Locate Hassan and take care of it. Thank you," he said, pushing a stray hair off her face.
She kept herself from flinching. "I heard about Russek. And now with Hassan--I understand that it's been a difficult week."
Sloane walked behind her and began massaging her shoulders. "One night--God, this was years ago--maybe two years before I met Jack. I'd just finished my first Far East briefing at the White House. I was new to the CIA. After the meeting, everyone got into a limousine to head back to Langley, but I didn't. I told them I was going to walk for a while."
He let go of her shoulders and walked to his desk. He leaned on the back of the chair. "They all looked at me sort of funny. I mean, it was a cold night, so I said I needed to get some air, but the truth is--I was overcome. It had occurred to me, as I was walking down the White House steps, that I was living in a perfect moment. Everything was filled with promise. My role at the CIA, my relationship with a wife that I had not yet met."
Laura nodded. She had experienced the same feeling after being briefed for her first assignment.
Sloane's eyes told her that he knew she understood. "Still, I could feel a darkness coming so I wandered around for a while. Ended up at the Jefferson Memorial. It's always my favorite one. Looked out across the basin. Lincoln right there."
Jack had taken her there for one of their first dates. He had loved DC, had loved the history it held. She had hated it then. She suddenly wanted to go back to DC with Jack, have him show it all to her again.
"I didn't know how it would finally materialize--the darkness. I had nothing to base it on. It wasn't as if the CIA had just betrayed me, that my wife had just been diagnosed with lymphoma. None of that had happened yet. So, whenever life takes an unfortunate turn, as it has this week, I just remind myself that I could see it coming all along. You understand that don't you, Laura? You feel it, too."
Tears stung her eyes. She looked down to keep him from seeing. He sighed. "I want Hassan dead. By this weekend."
Laura nodded and left him without saying a word.
***
"Jack, you look like shit."
His friend stopped packing and looked up at him. "Thanks," he mumbled as he placed a linen suit into his luggage.
Vaughn sighed and leaned against the wall. Jack had been staying in a motel since finding out that Laura knew about Sydney's double agent status. Devlin had not been thrilled about it, but he had understood Jack's need for distance.
Jack had been scarce at the office, too. He couldn't go into his office at Jennings' since he was away on a business trip, and he only appeared at headquarters for the debriefings and hearings into the possibility that he had known of his wife's allegiance.
"I don't know why they are sending you," Vaughn finally said, walking further into the room.
The zipper on Jack's luggage muttered as he closed his luggage. "They are sending me because I have a lot of good contacts in Cuba, especially Havana. I'm one of the old Cold War spies, Michael."
Vaughn sat down in the uncomfortable chair. It was the only place to sit besides the bed, which was covered in newspapers and luggage. "I think it is a mistake to trust Hassan."
"I do, too," Jack admitted.
Vaughn's stomach turned. He had wanted his mentor to reassure him, not agree with him. "Damn."
"We need that information, Michael. And we need to get to Hassan before SD-6's assassin does." Jack carried his garment bag and sat it next to the door.
"Sydney didn't even give the information to Sloane," Vaughn protested.
Jack put on his jacket. "Arvin is a smart man, Michael. He doesn't put all of his eggs in one basket, and he knows not to focus on one source of information to the point of ignoring other avenues. He might not know now, but he will soon. Like I told you before, Arvin Sloane takes betrayal very personally."
Vaughn stiffened in spite of himself. Their earlier confrontation still rang in his ears. "I remember," he said, hoping it sounded calm and flat.
The look on Jack's face told him that he failed. "I'm sorry, Michael. I did what I did to save my daughter's life."
"You went over my head, Jack. Without even giving me time to think about it," Vaughn snapped. He inhaled and told himself to remain calm. Jack had been right; it had been a set up.
"Yes, I did. And I would do it again, Michael, if the circumstances were the same."
Vaughn's stomach protested the punch. He thought Jack trusted him, respected him.
"I do," Jack said, as if Vaughn had voiced his thoughts. "I trust you to keep her safe even when your superiors argue with you. I knew you would fight me, Michael, and I didn't have time to explain. I needed you to trust me."
Staring at him, Vaughn struggled to explain why he was so bothered by Jack's behavior. "I did trust you, Jack. You didn't trust me."
Jack's grin surprised him. "I trusted you to behave like you always do. You were focused on the goal: Protect Sydney. I needed to break that focus and asking Davenport to overrule you did it."
"Strategy," Vaughn sighed.
"It's how I think," his friend replied. "I had to get your focus broken long enough to get your attention."
"So you could save Sydney and her cover."
"Exactly." Jack looked down at his watch.
"Because taking down SD-6 is what gets her up in the morning," Vaughn said. A stray thought ran through his head and grew.
Jack's focus shifted to him. "Yes."
Vaughn stared at his friend. "I've been thinking about that ever since you said it. Is it what gets her up in the mornings? Or is it what gets you up out of bed?"
Storm clouds gathered in Jack's eyes. Vaughn ignored the flashes of lightening. "I mean you must hate SD-6, even more than Sydney. They murdered her fiancé, lied to her, but they did worse to you, Jack. They stole your entire life from you."
Jack's relaxed his fists. "Yes, Michael, they did. And, yes, I want them destroyed. It is personal, but I'm not going to foolishly risk my daughter's life to do it."
"I'm not going to let you, Jack," Vaughn said, hating himself for causing the pain, but knowing that the warning needed to be made.
Jack stared at him for a minute, and Vaughn felt like that teenage boy that so desperately needed a father figure. Finally, Jack nodded. "Good. It's the only thing I ask of you these days: Keep Sydney safe."