It really hadn't been anything he hadn't done before, but things were
different since he had become Sydney Bristow's handler, the days seemed
more taxing. He supposed it was the worry, Vaughn mused, throwing his tie
down on the dresser. He seemed to worry more since she'd become a double
agent, since she had marched into the CIA with that ridiculous wig and
written detailed intel Tolstoy would have deemed lengthy. Weiss would have
said it was because he was getting too attached. Haladki would have said
it was because he was incompetent.
Ah well, it didn't really matter. Fact was, he was tired and he was looking forward to a beer and some TV. Actually, that wasn't the first thing he was looking forward to, but he'd take what he could get.
Getting a drink out of the fridge, Vaughn settled back in his armchair, ready to see what was happening in the world of primetime TV.
It wasn't long before the CIA handler had drifted off to sleep, the blue-ish light still flickering from the set.
That's when they made their move.
It had been whispered that Dr. Khasinau himself had come up with the recipe of chemicals, audiovisuals, and neural simulation that proved so effective. It was amazingly undetectable. The subject would be completely normal until a trigger was used, then the part of the personality subverted by this treatment would take control and be open to commands given by The Man. Another trigger would 'wake up' the subject who would have no memory of what had been done. Except for the dreams.
Medical science was currently of the theory that the human brain was one giant recorder, that it never forgot anything, only the conscious mind did that. So, the memories expressed themselves through dreams. Well, there was nothing they could do about that. Thankfully, the subject Vaughn didn't talk in his sleep; unless under duress, of course.
The mole The Man had inside the CIA had been proving his worth as of late. The information he provided made Vaughn the perfect target, as this handler had access to top secrets of not only the CIA but the sixth division of the Alliance as well. And more importantly, access to Sydney Bristow and her father.
The Man had taken a personal interest in seeing this man brought over to their side. So, a team had been ordered to condition Agent Vaughn so that when the time was right, his final induction into the Man's organization would be as quick and undetectable as possible.
At first they had started with giving him small doses of drugs to make him talk more freely than he would otherwise. They got a lot of information that way. Their other mole was useful in providing a schedule of spot drug tests in the future; this let them plan out which chemicals to use so they would not be detected. Then they had moved on to the actual conditioning.
For their purposes, it was as well that Agent Vaughn's work kept him so busy and left him so tired at night. Of course, the drugs helped him with that. But, the fact that the target was away from home so much of the time, allowed them to store more complicated equipment on-site, in a back closet, and not be faced with increased risk every session by hauling their equipment in. This way they could be in and out quickly and silently, without anyone being the wiser.
Eight months later
More recently, the two man team had been coming simply to observe. It had seemed that the subject had been becoming more aware than he should have been.
Vaughn had had all kinds of pressures on him of late. Sydney had just returned from Paris the day before, with the shocking news that Will had been there under the care of Sark. A CIA team was watching him in one of the safehouses, but Syd was still frantic about his original reactions to seeing Syd and her father in France too. Despite the headache raging through his brain, he was hopped up on coffee and couldn't sleep.
He settled down in his chair with a drink, hoping for some rest.
Unbeknownst to him, two pairs of eyes watched him from the shadows, waiting for the drugged drink to take effect.
He was just about out, the chair was really comfortable.
"Rrrriiinnnngg!" Damn that phone!
"Uh- hello?"
"Ten seconds for secure confirmation."
He hated these silly security checks, but he knew they were necessary.
Click. "Line secure. Agent Vaughn, there's been an emergency."
Instantly alert, Vaughn was alarmed. "What happened?"
"The safehouse where the reporter was being held has been breached. The team assigned to guard him is dead and the reporter missing."
"Damn!" Syd would go ballistic. "Do we have any leads? Do you want me to come in?"
"No, just stay by your phone. We will inform you of more information. Do not contact Freelancer." The man from security section hung up.
Sydney was going to go crazy! How could he not tell her, or contact her? Vaughn reached for the Coke he'd been drinking, and took a sip.
How could he get in touch with her without risking missing the call? He knew his wire was being tapped by the security section; it wasn't like he could call her. His eyes blurred over. Man, he was more tired than he'd thought. He should have been used to pulling all-nighters with all the work he'd been putting in. He brought the cordless phone and his coke into the kitchen, sitting there, willing the phone to ring.
Seconds later he was fast asleep, despite the hard chair.
"Should we find out what happened?"
"Our orders were to observe."
"Clearly something important is going on."
"We have orders, I don't really want to go against.." An almost inaudible chime sounded. Their beeper. Glancing at it, they saw a code in Russian letters. FULL WITHDRAWAL TO BASE. What? They were to retreat? Another chime, NOW. These two had been well trained. They knew when and when not to question the man on the other side of the line.
One stayed with the subject, making sure he didn't wake up. The other quietly packed all their equipment and piece by piece, took it to their waiting car; they wouldn't be coming back.
They made one last sweep of the apartment, making sure their presence was untraceable, finally removing the can of soda from the unconscious agent's hand. The whole process had taken about two hours. The phone rang four times.
Once they had reached the car which was parked on a dark side street, a black town car screeched down the street. The driver parked it at the curb then got out and ran into the building. Everything from the suit the man was wearing to the make and model of the car screamed CIA.
"Time to go." The team member who was driving said.
"Da." Their departure had gone well.
Wiess pounded up the stairs of Vaughn's apartment building. No one had been able to get a hold of him in well over an hour. It wasn't like they hadn't tried. Why Devlin hadn't just called Vaughn in, he had no idea. But there had been a severe breach of security, all CIA operatives were at risk. And Vaughn couldn't be reached.
"Vaughn!" He said, knocking on the door. "Vaughn!" He tried it, it wasn't locked. Pushing it open he quickly scanned the room before going inside. Gun out, he moved room to room, alert for intruders.
The place looked antiseptic, but it was all clear until he reached the kitchen. Vaughn was passed out at his kitchen table. Phone on the table next to him.
Holstering the gun, Weiss hurried over. "Vaughn! Vaughn!" Weiss shook him awake.
"Huh? Hi, uh- Weiss?"
"Man, what is wrong with you? We tried to call you in four times!"
"I'm up, I'm up. What's all the hurry?" The phone chose that moment to ring.
Weiss picked it up. "Yes, sir. No, he's here sir. We're on our way sir." Hanging up, he started pushing Vaughn towards the door. "What the hell is wrong with you? The phone's obviously working."
"I'm sorry Weiss, I was just tired I guess."
"You scared me. All agents have been called in for fear of further retaliation, especially those who have had anything to do with Sydney and that whole file."
"Okay, let's go."
On their way back to the CIA branch office, Weiss tried to get Vaughn to tell him why he'd been able to sleep through the phone going off right by his ear.
"I'm sorry, Weiss, I was just tired."
"Yeah, well, it's time to go to work now."
"Sure, just let me finish." Vaughn slipped back into a daze.
"So help me God, if you fall asleep now when the CIA is in the state that it's in, I will march you down for medical evaluation as soon as we get there, is that understood?"
"Yeah, I'm up."
Once they got to the office, Vaughn seemed okay. And there was simply too much going on for Weiss to keep tabs on his friend.
The next day, Vaughn disappeared. So did Jack and Sydney Bristow.
Ah well, it didn't really matter. Fact was, he was tired and he was looking forward to a beer and some TV. Actually, that wasn't the first thing he was looking forward to, but he'd take what he could get.
Getting a drink out of the fridge, Vaughn settled back in his armchair, ready to see what was happening in the world of primetime TV.
It wasn't long before the CIA handler had drifted off to sleep, the blue-ish light still flickering from the set.
That's when they made their move.
It had been whispered that Dr. Khasinau himself had come up with the recipe of chemicals, audiovisuals, and neural simulation that proved so effective. It was amazingly undetectable. The subject would be completely normal until a trigger was used, then the part of the personality subverted by this treatment would take control and be open to commands given by The Man. Another trigger would 'wake up' the subject who would have no memory of what had been done. Except for the dreams.
Medical science was currently of the theory that the human brain was one giant recorder, that it never forgot anything, only the conscious mind did that. So, the memories expressed themselves through dreams. Well, there was nothing they could do about that. Thankfully, the subject Vaughn didn't talk in his sleep; unless under duress, of course.
The mole The Man had inside the CIA had been proving his worth as of late. The information he provided made Vaughn the perfect target, as this handler had access to top secrets of not only the CIA but the sixth division of the Alliance as well. And more importantly, access to Sydney Bristow and her father.
The Man had taken a personal interest in seeing this man brought over to their side. So, a team had been ordered to condition Agent Vaughn so that when the time was right, his final induction into the Man's organization would be as quick and undetectable as possible.
At first they had started with giving him small doses of drugs to make him talk more freely than he would otherwise. They got a lot of information that way. Their other mole was useful in providing a schedule of spot drug tests in the future; this let them plan out which chemicals to use so they would not be detected. Then they had moved on to the actual conditioning.
For their purposes, it was as well that Agent Vaughn's work kept him so busy and left him so tired at night. Of course, the drugs helped him with that. But, the fact that the target was away from home so much of the time, allowed them to store more complicated equipment on-site, in a back closet, and not be faced with increased risk every session by hauling their equipment in. This way they could be in and out quickly and silently, without anyone being the wiser.
Eight months later
More recently, the two man team had been coming simply to observe. It had seemed that the subject had been becoming more aware than he should have been.
Vaughn had had all kinds of pressures on him of late. Sydney had just returned from Paris the day before, with the shocking news that Will had been there under the care of Sark. A CIA team was watching him in one of the safehouses, but Syd was still frantic about his original reactions to seeing Syd and her father in France too. Despite the headache raging through his brain, he was hopped up on coffee and couldn't sleep.
He settled down in his chair with a drink, hoping for some rest.
Unbeknownst to him, two pairs of eyes watched him from the shadows, waiting for the drugged drink to take effect.
He was just about out, the chair was really comfortable.
"Rrrriiinnnngg!" Damn that phone!
"Uh- hello?"
"Ten seconds for secure confirmation."
He hated these silly security checks, but he knew they were necessary.
Click. "Line secure. Agent Vaughn, there's been an emergency."
Instantly alert, Vaughn was alarmed. "What happened?"
"The safehouse where the reporter was being held has been breached. The team assigned to guard him is dead and the reporter missing."
"Damn!" Syd would go ballistic. "Do we have any leads? Do you want me to come in?"
"No, just stay by your phone. We will inform you of more information. Do not contact Freelancer." The man from security section hung up.
Sydney was going to go crazy! How could he not tell her, or contact her? Vaughn reached for the Coke he'd been drinking, and took a sip.
How could he get in touch with her without risking missing the call? He knew his wire was being tapped by the security section; it wasn't like he could call her. His eyes blurred over. Man, he was more tired than he'd thought. He should have been used to pulling all-nighters with all the work he'd been putting in. He brought the cordless phone and his coke into the kitchen, sitting there, willing the phone to ring.
Seconds later he was fast asleep, despite the hard chair.
"Should we find out what happened?"
"Our orders were to observe."
"Clearly something important is going on."
"We have orders, I don't really want to go against.." An almost inaudible chime sounded. Their beeper. Glancing at it, they saw a code in Russian letters. FULL WITHDRAWAL TO BASE. What? They were to retreat? Another chime, NOW. These two had been well trained. They knew when and when not to question the man on the other side of the line.
One stayed with the subject, making sure he didn't wake up. The other quietly packed all their equipment and piece by piece, took it to their waiting car; they wouldn't be coming back.
They made one last sweep of the apartment, making sure their presence was untraceable, finally removing the can of soda from the unconscious agent's hand. The whole process had taken about two hours. The phone rang four times.
Once they had reached the car which was parked on a dark side street, a black town car screeched down the street. The driver parked it at the curb then got out and ran into the building. Everything from the suit the man was wearing to the make and model of the car screamed CIA.
"Time to go." The team member who was driving said.
"Da." Their departure had gone well.
Wiess pounded up the stairs of Vaughn's apartment building. No one had been able to get a hold of him in well over an hour. It wasn't like they hadn't tried. Why Devlin hadn't just called Vaughn in, he had no idea. But there had been a severe breach of security, all CIA operatives were at risk. And Vaughn couldn't be reached.
"Vaughn!" He said, knocking on the door. "Vaughn!" He tried it, it wasn't locked. Pushing it open he quickly scanned the room before going inside. Gun out, he moved room to room, alert for intruders.
The place looked antiseptic, but it was all clear until he reached the kitchen. Vaughn was passed out at his kitchen table. Phone on the table next to him.
Holstering the gun, Weiss hurried over. "Vaughn! Vaughn!" Weiss shook him awake.
"Huh? Hi, uh- Weiss?"
"Man, what is wrong with you? We tried to call you in four times!"
"I'm up, I'm up. What's all the hurry?" The phone chose that moment to ring.
Weiss picked it up. "Yes, sir. No, he's here sir. We're on our way sir." Hanging up, he started pushing Vaughn towards the door. "What the hell is wrong with you? The phone's obviously working."
"I'm sorry Weiss, I was just tired I guess."
"You scared me. All agents have been called in for fear of further retaliation, especially those who have had anything to do with Sydney and that whole file."
"Okay, let's go."
On their way back to the CIA branch office, Weiss tried to get Vaughn to tell him why he'd been able to sleep through the phone going off right by his ear.
"I'm sorry, Weiss, I was just tired."
"Yeah, well, it's time to go to work now."
"Sure, just let me finish." Vaughn slipped back into a daze.
"So help me God, if you fall asleep now when the CIA is in the state that it's in, I will march you down for medical evaluation as soon as we get there, is that understood?"
"Yeah, I'm up."
Once they got to the office, Vaughn seemed okay. And there was simply too much going on for Weiss to keep tabs on his friend.
The next day, Vaughn disappeared. So did Jack and Sydney Bristow.