The Ties That Bind
Chapter 3: Meeting
Los Angeles
SD-6 Headquarters
The Conference Room
Later
Nathalia walked down the hall towards the conference room, her insides a bundle of nerves. On the outside, she appeared calm and cool, just like she wanted. She was now dressed in slightly more formal wear a light, black blazer from Chanel, over a simple short, white blouse with simple black pants flared at the ankles with pair of black 3 inch stiletto heels. Her hair was pulled into a tight French twist, her makeup was simple, minimal eyeliner, a little blush to accent her high cheekbones and some rouge. Her neck was adorned with a simple teardrop diamond pendent, while on her left wrist there was a thin sparkling diamond bracelet. Jack was impressed; his daughter had just jumped from shy, hurt, 16 year-old to a 21 year-old young woman who looked dressed to kill so to speak. They entered the room to see Slone, Marshall, and Sydney sitting down. They all rose when Jack and Nathalia entered. Slone came foreword instantly to introduce himself. Nathalia felt Jack's hand on her back.
"Arvin Slone may I introduce you to Nathalia Bretov. Nathalia, this is SD-6's director, Arvin Slone," said Jack watching the two shake hands.
"A pleasure Monsieur Slone," said Nathalia, her voice with a hint of French in it.
"The pleasure is all mine Ms. Bretov," said Slone with a smile. "We are very happy to have you here at SD-6. Your reputation precedes you."
"All good, I trust?" she asked as she was led to a chair.
"Nothing, but praise for your work. May I introduce to you our director of technology Marshall Flinkman and one of our top agents Sydney Bristow.
"A pleasure to meet you both," Nathalia said shaking their hands.
"Nathalia is here to re-enforce our computer systems. She is the highest paid computer programmer and consultant in history. We are honored to have you here and trust that you will bring SD-6 back to excellence."
Sydney watched Slone as he smiled proudly and couldn't help but feel her skin crawl. This girl was going to make her mission to take SD-6 down harder. Her father seemed calm about her presence and had not yet said anything to her. But Sydney couldn't help noticing this girl. She looked so familiar, like Sydney had seen her somewhere before, but she didn't know where. Sydney watched as Marshall took Nathalia to the technology department. Slone left next, leaving her and her father alone. Jack approached her briskly.
"Sydney, I have some business with Slone, but I'd like to speak with you after."
"Ok, I'll see you later."
Slone's Office
Later
"What is your diagnosis?" Slone asked as Nathalia came into the room.
"From what I was able to see, your systems are crippled. In the aspects of security at least, may I?" She asked gesturing at the computer.
"Of course," he replied as she sat down and started typing commands. A few seconds later a screen came up, Slone came and looked over her shoulder. "This was the state of your systems before," showing him a screen shot. With the right equipment, a novice computer hacker could break into your systems and download some, sensitive information. However, I installed a security program that I created. The world's best hackers cannot break into this system. But there is still work to be done. It can wait a little longer if you wish."
"Wonderful, did you hand in the confidentiality agreements?"
"Yes."
"Your work will suffice for today. Here is your security clearance," said Slone handing her a plastic card.
"Thank you."
"Again, I appreciate your efforts."
"Not at all."
Jack's Flat
Nathalia's Room
1 hour later
Nathalia sat on the bed cross-legged. She was back to her normal self, dressed in a tee shirt and jeans. Her hair was down covering part of her face. Today had been a lot to take in. Her entire family, including herself was spies. It was just too weird, but than again, she was the youngest member of the Paris Ballet, knew 8 languages and got straight A's. Jack and Sydney being spies didn't freak her out because after all they weren't in her life until now. But her mother was KGB! The same KGB that existed in history books, but it seemed elusive, something out of a fairytale. Her mother was not the spy, crime boss type of person, at least to her. This was the same woman who picked her up when she fell, and bandaged her cuts. She was the one who stayed up all night when Nathalia was sick. She encouraged her in those first years of ballet. But in the last few years, her mother had been away more. She hadn't made some of the season's performances. But Nathalia hadn't really noticed because between the ballet and school everything was a blur. Well that is until today. Her mother was assigned to marry her father, no she was forced to marry Jack, Sydney was an assignment, and she was a mistake. And now she was involved with a rogue intelligence agency. Can someone say therapy please? This was totally insane! Nathalia rose from her the position on the bed and went downstairs. Jack was in his study, working on a file. She knocked on the door quietly.
"Come in," Jack replied.
Nathalia opened the door, lingering at the door.
"Nathalia, did you need something?" he asked looking up at her.
"Dad…can we…can we talk?"
"Of course, sit down," he said rising from the desk and leading her to the sofa. "What's wrong?"
"I was just thinking about today, that's all. I don't know whether to scream or cry. I just can't believe that my mother did that to you, to Sydney, that she lied to all of us," she said, the tears stinging her eyes.
"I know," said Jack softly as she curled up next to him. And to his surprise, he opened his arms and wrapped them around her protectively.
"Why? Why did she do it?" Nathalia asked the tears slowly falling. "She lied to me all of this time. Every time she had to go away, she lied, saying it was business. Meanwhile, she was hurting the U.S. even more than before. I didn't sign up for this! Why can't anything be normal for a change?" She was so angry for so many reasons, but she was still sad for her father, for Sydney, for her mother, and herself.
Jack looked at the girl he was holding in his arms. She was evidence of what this life could do to the human soul. It could make you strong and cold as hell, but it could also tear apart the soul. For the 24 hours he had known her, Jack could tell that she was just exhausted and so was he. The sleep had been too short and the day too long.
"Nathalia, let's go to bed. You'll feel better in the morning," said Jack looking down at her. There was no response. "Nathalia?" He leaned over and looked at her. She had fallen asleep. Jack carefully removed his arms and stood up, lifting her into his arms. Quietly he walked out of the room and ascended the stairs. He walked into Nathalia's room and laid her on the bed. She whimpered softly from the lack of contact.
"Daddy?" she murmured half-asleep.
"It's ok Nathalia, go back to sleep."
"Stay with me please?" she whispered.
"Sure," he said getting on the bed and lying beside her. She curled up next to him and fell asleep again. But Jack lay on the bed thinking for awhile, "What have you done to her Irina, what have you done?"
The Next Morning
Jack was downstairs in the kitchen drinking his morning coffee when the doorbell rang. He got up and answered it. When he opened the door Sydney was standing on the other side.
"You wanted to see me?"
"Yes, thank you for coming so quickly," said Jack as she came in. "We have something to discuss."
"What is it?" Sydney asked sitting down.
"It has to do with Nathalia Bretov."
"Nathalia?"
"Sydney, her real name is Nathalia Derevko."
"She's my sister?"
"Not too long after your mother "died" she discovered that she was pregnant. She's mine Sydney."
"Did you have a DNA test?"
"Khasinau is her father on record and he is unable to have children. I am her father Sydney."
"I knew that she looked familiar. I just couldn't figure out why. How much does she know?"
"She knows everything. I took her to see Irina early yesterday morning. She knows all about the KGB, CIA, and SD-6."
"So she knows about SD-6 not being CIA?"
"Yes she does, and Devlin wants to sign her into the CIA as an agent."
"But she's so young."
"I know, but she could be vital in taking SD-6 down."
"Where is she?"
"Upstairs, getting dressed. She had a hard day yesterday. She had no idea about your mother."
Nathalia came into the living room dressed in a tee shirt and jeans. She stopped dead when she saw Sydney. They looked at each other for a moment.
"Hi," said Nathalia quietly.
"Hi."
"I'm going to leave you to talk," said Jack rising off the couch and going upstairs.
"I've heard a lot about you."
"You have?"
"Let's just say I've done my homework, so to speak."
"I know nothing about you."
"Well what do you want to know?"
"Anything you want to tell me."
"Well I was born in Paris, I've been a ballet dancer since I was three. I've never had glasses, braces, tattoos, or piercings, except for 1 hole in each ear. And I've never had any surgery of any kind. I can read, write, and speak 8 languages, and my favorite thing to do besides ballet is fencing."
"Sounds like me a little bit."
"Mom told me everything," Nathalia said, her voice lowering. "I'm sorry."
"You have nothing to apologize for. The only one who really got affected by all of this was Dad."
"You're telling me. He was so cold to her yesterday, it was unbelievable. But it seems so unreal still, you know what I mean?"
"I know exactly what you mean. When I first found out that Dad was a spy I couldn't believe it. But it takes time to get used to."
"I guess it does, but its so much to take in. I mean one day I was in Paris dancing, and the next day I'm here signing on to be a spy. Not just with one organization, but two."
"It will be hard at first, but at least you don't have to keep the ones you care about in the dark."
"You do?"
"My friend Will knows everything and works side jobs for the CIA. He didn't know anything until last year. My friend Francie still knows nothing and I still feel bad every time we make plans and I have to cancel."
"That sucks. But I can't say that I'm not happy to be here. I was beginning to hate Paris. Mom was away more and more, I was doing well in school and in ballet but everyone stayed away from me because they thought I was above them and as for my company members, all they did was bitch because I got everything that they didn't get when they were my age. They feel like I'm some sort of threat. I'm not a threat, all I want to do is dance. When I start to dance it's the best feeling in the world, I can't explain it."
Sydney smiled, "That's when you know that you love what you do."
"Do you like what you do?" Nathalia asked shifting her position.
"Sometimes, but I hate doing missions for SD-6 knowing what they do. But one day they will be gone, I'll make sure of that."
"And so will I."
Later…
It was now official; Nathalia was a double agent for the CIA and SD-6. With the proper training, she would be a force to be reckoned with. But for the moment she was not thinking about that at all. For that moment she was thinking about the day before with her mother and everything that she had learned. In a split second everything she had been told was shredded into pieces. And now, she didn't know what to believe, but she knew one thing. She could trust her father and Sydney; as for her mother Nathalia wasn't so sure. She walked down the hall, towards the first gate, but she stopped when she heard voices. She identified them as her mother and father.
"I told her Jack, what more do you want?"
"I want to know why Irina. Why did you do it?"
"You know why Jack! I had no choice."
"You had a choice, but instead you chose to leave me to raise Sydney alone and let Nathalia be raised by a killer."
"You don't know anything about my relationship with Khasinau."
"I knew all I needed to know once my daughter told me that she was almost killed twice by the man who she thought was her father."
Irina's eyes widened.
"What?"
"Don't tell me you didn't know."
"No Jack, I didn't. Did she tell you what happened?"
"No," he paused. "How could you let that happen?"
Irina paced around the cell before stopping to give her answer.
"I should have known. She was too quiet after I got back from Austria." She paused. "Jack, I need to see her."
"She's been though enough trauma for 1 week, she doesn't need anymore."
"I'll decide what I can and cannot handle thank you," Nathalia says coming through the gates. I'm sorry mom," she says putting her hand up on the glass.
"No my darling, I am the one who is sorry," said Irina putting her hand on the glass too. "I should have never left you alone," she says tears stinging her eyes.
Nathalia turns back to her father, "Can I hug her, please?" she asks quietly.
"No, Nathalia, I forbid it."
"Daddy, please," Nathalia pleaded. "Please?"
"Alright, 5 minutes."
He unlocked the door and Nathalia went in and hugged her mother tight before starting to cry. This was the first time Irina had held her in months. She felt so guilty for what she had done to her family, but now especially Nathalia. What kind of mother was she?
"I'm so sorry mommy," Nathalia whispered through her tears.
Inside Jack seethed with rage; Irina had enraptured his daughter once more.