Chapter 8
Vaughn and David back at the CIA safe house~
Vaughn stood next to David and watched Sydney unravel before his eyes.
He tried to concentrate, read her expressions, but with the angel of the camera it proved too difficult. Eventually, he just had to stop and let it play out. He had no choice but to trust her. He wondered briefly if she wasn't playing out of her league; and then he wondered if Sark wasn't. What was she trying to do? He worried. It felt like he was watching something very intimate unfolding between them, and he didn't like it.
"What is it with these two?" David asked uneasily.
Vaughn just shook his head. He had no idea.
They watched in silence save for the occasional tapping of David's keyboard. At one point, frustrated, Vaughn Exclaimed, "Can't you do something about the sound?"
"Tried. Sound's fine. They're just not doing much talking. And what they are saying, they're keeping to themselves."
Somewhere along the line Vaughn had started pacing, watching the screen then looking away, looking back. It was like a terrible movie you couldn't stop watching. He knew it had to stop. They were on a timer for God's sake. He wondered how long a time Sark had decided he "needed" with Sydney. Then all at once, just when Vaughn thought he'd scream, the screen went blue.
"What just happened?" He demanded.
"It's entered into the looping cycle. I didn't think you needed to see it again." Answered David.
"Can you circumvent the loop?"
"Not from here. Not without giving them away. I'll start looking for them." After a moment he murmured, "I can see why she's one of our best agents."
Vaughn shot him a look.
"Oh, sorry." He apologized.
************************
Back with Sark and Sydney~
Rounding the corner of the back stairwell, Sark quickly led Sydney down a deserted hallway to the empty surveillance room; letting them in with the key Maurice had provided him with. He explained to her in a low voice, "Korin is networked into the surveillance system via a front company of his, Volksricht Securities. Who, as it turns out, handles security for the Davincci."
Entering the chamber, Sark headed directly over to the mainframe.
"What do you want me to do?" She asked, following him in.
"You don't have to do anything."
"Then why am I here?" she asked.
"Because I need you where I can keep an eye on you."
She looked at him to clarify what he meant but he'd already set to work.
He pulled a chair out for Sydney and then, reaching into their case, took out a small metal device and placed it next to the monitor, plugging the jack into the hard drive.
"What is that?" She asked, sitting down.
"It's a digital relay." Standing next to her, he began inputting information onto the keyboard. He explained, "It seems someone has hacked into the Davincci surveillance system from a remote Satellite. I noticed it this morning when I had Maurice explain the system to me in preparation of our.... time together." He looked briefly over at her.
"Who accessed it?" She asked, keeping her face emotionless, ignoring the reference. 'Oh my God,' she thought, 'he knows.'
"There could be a hundred different possibilities. That's not important," he assured her. "It isn't our problem - but it will be our point of entry. When our new "friend" hacked into the system, they inadvertently created a bridge for us to access Volksricht Securities and thus Korin's personal database."
"So they also have access to Korin." She reiterated. She could feel her blood pumping. "Are they aware of that?"
"It's not likely." He answered, continuing to upload information. "The bridge only became amenable when Korin accessed the surveillance camera to record us. Which was a small window of opportunity I orchestrated specifically for this reason. It's unlikely whoever this is could have anticipated that variable." Sark kept his eyes on the monitor following his progress meticulously through the system.
"So someone's accessed the mainframe at just the right time? Seems like a hell of a coincidence." She covered.
"Doesn't it?" He looked over to her pointedly.
"So how did you know to make the link?" She asked quickly, changing the subject.
"I'm just being resourceful. When I decided to go after Slovak, the question became how to tie him to the missing disk. Infiltrating Korin's personal files, leaving a trail leading back to him, seemed the obvious route. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. It's a little known fact that Korin is a bit of a technical wiz. In developing his own software, he likes to devise programs with terrible patches. He adds features that are useless to anyone but himself, making it virtually impossible for outside parties to access sensitive information. It's long been rumored he once worked for the KGB doing just that type of thing..." he explained idly while continuing to upload various code sequences. "That's actually true." He added.
"How do you know?"
"I keep track of these things."
He continued. "Therefore the real difficulty wasn't necessarily getting to Korin, it was that Korin's personal database has a one-sided security. The only way you can tap into it is from inside the line. I had considered originally if we could just tap into his source code I could mess with the beta kernels to access his hardware. Too time consuming. When I discovered the breach from an outside source, the idea began forming in my head of initiating a 'third party rip-off'. Far more simple. We're going to create a back track into our invisible 'friend's' network. I'm working on reverse engineering a straight connect from their system right into ours." He explained, still tapping at the keys.
"You mean we're piggy-backing off one to reach the other?" She reiterated. "Nice." Despite herself, she was impressed.
She found herself leaning in to get a closer look. "I didn't know you knew so much about computers."
"There's a lot you don't know about me." He pointed out, stepping back and moving her chair over in front of him to give her a better view. Reaching his arms around her, he leaned in and continued working from this angle, watching the screen from over her shoulder.
She could feel her body warming to him at once. She felt flush; his face was so close to hers. Sark seemed completely oblivious, however. She could see his mind was completely focused on the task at hand.
'I need to refocus,' she thought. She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she watched him labor at what appeared to be some type of sequencing format.
"How will we get through?" She asked. "That firewall is layered. It would take an expert to break that code."
"Yes," he murmured as he examined the monitor closely. "This might do it...." Starting again, he in-put a series of numbers, repeating them in a duplicate pattern 51 times. The firewall dropped and cleared.
She was stunned.
"Now, with the proper configuration," he explained, continuing to work, "we can roam through an outer area of their network and relay on over to Korin's database."
"Sydney," he said quietly, a moment later, "when I said you were amazing before, I wasn't critiquing your 'performance'."
************************
Vaughn and David back at CIA safe house~
"Agent Vaughn, someone is accessing our feed." David informed him urgently.
"How is that happening?" Vaughn asked, coming quickly over.
"Someone's managed to circumvent our preliminary firewall."
Vaughn considered it could be Sydney but he knew she didn't have the technical training for that. That left the possibility it was Sark, which couldn't be good. But Sark had Sydney, and this complicated things.
"Are they lifting information?" He asked.
"No, but they could." David cautioned, watching the screen in amazement. "No, wait... they're riding our tail to infiltrate another IP address that's logged on to the system. Wow,... that's good." He exclaimed. "Should I shut it down?"
"Not yet. It could be them. As long as they aren't siphoning, let's let it play out." Vaughn instructed.
"You must have a lot of faith in your agent to allow her access like that." David observed gravely. "Are you sure you trust her that much?" He was thinking about what he'd witnessed earlier through the monitor. The relationship between their agent and the man she was working with appeared complicated, to say the least. He understood the taping had been staged for someone else's benefit, but there was something in their reactions to each other that had appeared very... real, he thought.
Vaughn didn't hesitate.
"Absolutely." He answered firmly.
*************************
Back with Sark and Sydney~
"Won't they detect the infringement?" Sydney asked, referring to their 'anonymous' third party, trying desperately to ignore the wave of heat coming over her.
"Yes, I'm sure." He answered distractedly, continuing to work.
"Well, won't they shut us down?" She asked, looking over to him.
Looking briefly back at her, he replied, "I don't think so."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Call it a hunch."
"Will you try to infiltrate their database as well?" She worried a moment later.
"No, there isn't time. And it might unnecessarily provoke them."
She sighed to herself in relief. She wasn't sure how she could manage to prevent that without exposing herself completely. Sark may have some idea she was hiding something, but he couldn't possibly know for sure. 'Or I wouldn't be sitting here,' she thought.
Sark continued tapping at the keyboard, his gaze fixed on the screen. "Okay, I'm in." He pulled back. "We can input proof of Korin's conspiracy with Slovak through encrypted messages and build a back feed to our anonymous third party." Sark took out the original reader she'd used in Korin's office and hooked it up. He took out a blank disk and downloaded the files. Then he took out another disk and, inserting it into the hard- drive, ran a secondary program.
"Now what are you doing?" She asked.
"Covering our tracks."
************************
Vaughn and David back at CIA safe house~
Information suddenly started flowing down their screen.
"Wait, are we picking up what they're picking up?" Vaughn asked surprised. 'Could this be it,' he thought, 'why she went so far?'
"Yep. The information will have to travel our system to reach theirs." David explained, getting excited.
"What are we getting?"
"There's everything," David declared, stunned. "Private communiqués, their sources of money and arms, video files, lists of potential targets corresponding to various militia,... it goes on and on."
"Anything regarding our Russian friend?" Vaughn asked, watching from behind.
"I don't know that yet, but, it's all here.... Oh shit!" David shouted, tapping furiously at his keyboard.
"What is it?" Vaughn asked.
"I've lost it," he yelled, frustrated. He was working desperately at the keys trying to get them to respond, to stop it. "It was on a time-release erase." He explained. Having been built into the program Sark was running, it was happening too quickly for David to circumvent it and retain the information. "And it gets worse." He added. "They've also downloaded a low grade virus."
"Did they get it?" Vaughn asked, referring to the Intel.
David sighed. "Yeah."
"Do we still have access to the surveillance system?" Vaughn worried, a moment later.
David searched the line. "No, we've been rerouted. And it looks like there's a maze of firewalls blocking our reentrance."
"How long?" Vaughn asked.
"Maybe two hours. Impressive shit." David observed. "We need this guy working for us."
Vaughn just stared at him. This was bad. He knew it had to be Sark. And now Sark had Sydney and the Intel; and he'd been the one to help him get it.
************************
Back with Sark and Sydney~
The monitor flashed 'TASK COMPLETE'. Sark collected his equipment and replaced it to their bag.
"Now I have to go plant the disk on Slovak." He said. He turned to Sydney and put out his hand. "Give me the disk," he instructed.
She reached into the case and pulled one out from a hidden pocket and handed it to him.
"Both of them." He said evenly.
She stared at him. "I don't know what you mean." She answered, meeting his gaze unflinchingly.
"We don't have time for this," he warned. "We only have 4 minutes left. If you're found with that disk I may not be able to protect you."
She hesitated, thinking it over. She didn't respond but simply held his gaze.
"Don't worry," he reassured her, "you'll get it back. I promise. You need to get to the secondary extraction point and cover yourself," he cautioned. "Now."
She still hesitated.
"Sydney, Korin will be aware of what's happened by now, and it won't take him long to deduce I played a part in it. He isn't fool enough to come after me directly but his ego may provoke him into going after something he knows belongs to me and that I value greatly."
"And what would that be?" She asked.
"You." He said simply.
"Why are you really going after Slovak?" She demanded. "I want the truth."
"Look, I get that you think I'm a bad boy, and I won't deny that. But," he said, "Some things are just what they are." Sark turned to an alternate monitor and, accessing the 'MENU', tapped in a number. Up on the screen popped an image of Slovak walking towards a small girl sitting on a bed. The image was grainy but, even so, you could see she was trembling. Suddenly Sydney felt like she couldn't breathe. She could feel the blood rushing from her face.
Sark braced her on the small of her back. "I would have liked to have spared you that," he said quietly, watching the screen as Slovak began unbuttoning his pants. "There are many things you should be spared."
Putting his hand out again he told her, "I have to go,"
"I want to do it." She said. She was talking about something else now and he knew what she meant.
"No." He shook his head. "This isn't a job for you. I'll take care of it," he promised. Oddly, his word was enough for her. She knew Slovak would be dead very soon.
"Go." He ordered. "We don't have much time. I won't be able to concentrate if I can't trust that you're safe."
This time she didn't hesitate. Reaching into her pocket, she handed the disk directly over.
"Don't worry Sydney," he said, taking it, "I'll protect you."
***********************
Vaughn and David back at the CIA safe house~
Vaughn stood next to David and watched Sydney unravel before his eyes.
He tried to concentrate, read her expressions, but with the angel of the camera it proved too difficult. Eventually, he just had to stop and let it play out. He had no choice but to trust her. He wondered briefly if she wasn't playing out of her league; and then he wondered if Sark wasn't. What was she trying to do? He worried. It felt like he was watching something very intimate unfolding between them, and he didn't like it.
"What is it with these two?" David asked uneasily.
Vaughn just shook his head. He had no idea.
They watched in silence save for the occasional tapping of David's keyboard. At one point, frustrated, Vaughn Exclaimed, "Can't you do something about the sound?"
"Tried. Sound's fine. They're just not doing much talking. And what they are saying, they're keeping to themselves."
Somewhere along the line Vaughn had started pacing, watching the screen then looking away, looking back. It was like a terrible movie you couldn't stop watching. He knew it had to stop. They were on a timer for God's sake. He wondered how long a time Sark had decided he "needed" with Sydney. Then all at once, just when Vaughn thought he'd scream, the screen went blue.
"What just happened?" He demanded.
"It's entered into the looping cycle. I didn't think you needed to see it again." Answered David.
"Can you circumvent the loop?"
"Not from here. Not without giving them away. I'll start looking for them." After a moment he murmured, "I can see why she's one of our best agents."
Vaughn shot him a look.
"Oh, sorry." He apologized.
************************
Back with Sark and Sydney~
Rounding the corner of the back stairwell, Sark quickly led Sydney down a deserted hallway to the empty surveillance room; letting them in with the key Maurice had provided him with. He explained to her in a low voice, "Korin is networked into the surveillance system via a front company of his, Volksricht Securities. Who, as it turns out, handles security for the Davincci."
Entering the chamber, Sark headed directly over to the mainframe.
"What do you want me to do?" She asked, following him in.
"You don't have to do anything."
"Then why am I here?" she asked.
"Because I need you where I can keep an eye on you."
She looked at him to clarify what he meant but he'd already set to work.
He pulled a chair out for Sydney and then, reaching into their case, took out a small metal device and placed it next to the monitor, plugging the jack into the hard drive.
"What is that?" She asked, sitting down.
"It's a digital relay." Standing next to her, he began inputting information onto the keyboard. He explained, "It seems someone has hacked into the Davincci surveillance system from a remote Satellite. I noticed it this morning when I had Maurice explain the system to me in preparation of our.... time together." He looked briefly over at her.
"Who accessed it?" She asked, keeping her face emotionless, ignoring the reference. 'Oh my God,' she thought, 'he knows.'
"There could be a hundred different possibilities. That's not important," he assured her. "It isn't our problem - but it will be our point of entry. When our new "friend" hacked into the system, they inadvertently created a bridge for us to access Volksricht Securities and thus Korin's personal database."
"So they also have access to Korin." She reiterated. She could feel her blood pumping. "Are they aware of that?"
"It's not likely." He answered, continuing to upload information. "The bridge only became amenable when Korin accessed the surveillance camera to record us. Which was a small window of opportunity I orchestrated specifically for this reason. It's unlikely whoever this is could have anticipated that variable." Sark kept his eyes on the monitor following his progress meticulously through the system.
"So someone's accessed the mainframe at just the right time? Seems like a hell of a coincidence." She covered.
"Doesn't it?" He looked over to her pointedly.
"So how did you know to make the link?" She asked quickly, changing the subject.
"I'm just being resourceful. When I decided to go after Slovak, the question became how to tie him to the missing disk. Infiltrating Korin's personal files, leaving a trail leading back to him, seemed the obvious route. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. It's a little known fact that Korin is a bit of a technical wiz. In developing his own software, he likes to devise programs with terrible patches. He adds features that are useless to anyone but himself, making it virtually impossible for outside parties to access sensitive information. It's long been rumored he once worked for the KGB doing just that type of thing..." he explained idly while continuing to upload various code sequences. "That's actually true." He added.
"How do you know?"
"I keep track of these things."
He continued. "Therefore the real difficulty wasn't necessarily getting to Korin, it was that Korin's personal database has a one-sided security. The only way you can tap into it is from inside the line. I had considered originally if we could just tap into his source code I could mess with the beta kernels to access his hardware. Too time consuming. When I discovered the breach from an outside source, the idea began forming in my head of initiating a 'third party rip-off'. Far more simple. We're going to create a back track into our invisible 'friend's' network. I'm working on reverse engineering a straight connect from their system right into ours." He explained, still tapping at the keys.
"You mean we're piggy-backing off one to reach the other?" She reiterated. "Nice." Despite herself, she was impressed.
She found herself leaning in to get a closer look. "I didn't know you knew so much about computers."
"There's a lot you don't know about me." He pointed out, stepping back and moving her chair over in front of him to give her a better view. Reaching his arms around her, he leaned in and continued working from this angle, watching the screen from over her shoulder.
She could feel her body warming to him at once. She felt flush; his face was so close to hers. Sark seemed completely oblivious, however. She could see his mind was completely focused on the task at hand.
'I need to refocus,' she thought. She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she watched him labor at what appeared to be some type of sequencing format.
"How will we get through?" She asked. "That firewall is layered. It would take an expert to break that code."
"Yes," he murmured as he examined the monitor closely. "This might do it...." Starting again, he in-put a series of numbers, repeating them in a duplicate pattern 51 times. The firewall dropped and cleared.
She was stunned.
"Now, with the proper configuration," he explained, continuing to work, "we can roam through an outer area of their network and relay on over to Korin's database."
"Sydney," he said quietly, a moment later, "when I said you were amazing before, I wasn't critiquing your 'performance'."
************************
Vaughn and David back at CIA safe house~
"Agent Vaughn, someone is accessing our feed." David informed him urgently.
"How is that happening?" Vaughn asked, coming quickly over.
"Someone's managed to circumvent our preliminary firewall."
Vaughn considered it could be Sydney but he knew she didn't have the technical training for that. That left the possibility it was Sark, which couldn't be good. But Sark had Sydney, and this complicated things.
"Are they lifting information?" He asked.
"No, but they could." David cautioned, watching the screen in amazement. "No, wait... they're riding our tail to infiltrate another IP address that's logged on to the system. Wow,... that's good." He exclaimed. "Should I shut it down?"
"Not yet. It could be them. As long as they aren't siphoning, let's let it play out." Vaughn instructed.
"You must have a lot of faith in your agent to allow her access like that." David observed gravely. "Are you sure you trust her that much?" He was thinking about what he'd witnessed earlier through the monitor. The relationship between their agent and the man she was working with appeared complicated, to say the least. He understood the taping had been staged for someone else's benefit, but there was something in their reactions to each other that had appeared very... real, he thought.
Vaughn didn't hesitate.
"Absolutely." He answered firmly.
*************************
Back with Sark and Sydney~
"Won't they detect the infringement?" Sydney asked, referring to their 'anonymous' third party, trying desperately to ignore the wave of heat coming over her.
"Yes, I'm sure." He answered distractedly, continuing to work.
"Well, won't they shut us down?" She asked, looking over to him.
Looking briefly back at her, he replied, "I don't think so."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Call it a hunch."
"Will you try to infiltrate their database as well?" She worried a moment later.
"No, there isn't time. And it might unnecessarily provoke them."
She sighed to herself in relief. She wasn't sure how she could manage to prevent that without exposing herself completely. Sark may have some idea she was hiding something, but he couldn't possibly know for sure. 'Or I wouldn't be sitting here,' she thought.
Sark continued tapping at the keyboard, his gaze fixed on the screen. "Okay, I'm in." He pulled back. "We can input proof of Korin's conspiracy with Slovak through encrypted messages and build a back feed to our anonymous third party." Sark took out the original reader she'd used in Korin's office and hooked it up. He took out a blank disk and downloaded the files. Then he took out another disk and, inserting it into the hard- drive, ran a secondary program.
"Now what are you doing?" She asked.
"Covering our tracks."
************************
Vaughn and David back at CIA safe house~
Information suddenly started flowing down their screen.
"Wait, are we picking up what they're picking up?" Vaughn asked surprised. 'Could this be it,' he thought, 'why she went so far?'
"Yep. The information will have to travel our system to reach theirs." David explained, getting excited.
"What are we getting?"
"There's everything," David declared, stunned. "Private communiqués, their sources of money and arms, video files, lists of potential targets corresponding to various militia,... it goes on and on."
"Anything regarding our Russian friend?" Vaughn asked, watching from behind.
"I don't know that yet, but, it's all here.... Oh shit!" David shouted, tapping furiously at his keyboard.
"What is it?" Vaughn asked.
"I've lost it," he yelled, frustrated. He was working desperately at the keys trying to get them to respond, to stop it. "It was on a time-release erase." He explained. Having been built into the program Sark was running, it was happening too quickly for David to circumvent it and retain the information. "And it gets worse." He added. "They've also downloaded a low grade virus."
"Did they get it?" Vaughn asked, referring to the Intel.
David sighed. "Yeah."
"Do we still have access to the surveillance system?" Vaughn worried, a moment later.
David searched the line. "No, we've been rerouted. And it looks like there's a maze of firewalls blocking our reentrance."
"How long?" Vaughn asked.
"Maybe two hours. Impressive shit." David observed. "We need this guy working for us."
Vaughn just stared at him. This was bad. He knew it had to be Sark. And now Sark had Sydney and the Intel; and he'd been the one to help him get it.
************************
Back with Sark and Sydney~
The monitor flashed 'TASK COMPLETE'. Sark collected his equipment and replaced it to their bag.
"Now I have to go plant the disk on Slovak." He said. He turned to Sydney and put out his hand. "Give me the disk," he instructed.
She reached into the case and pulled one out from a hidden pocket and handed it to him.
"Both of them." He said evenly.
She stared at him. "I don't know what you mean." She answered, meeting his gaze unflinchingly.
"We don't have time for this," he warned. "We only have 4 minutes left. If you're found with that disk I may not be able to protect you."
She hesitated, thinking it over. She didn't respond but simply held his gaze.
"Don't worry," he reassured her, "you'll get it back. I promise. You need to get to the secondary extraction point and cover yourself," he cautioned. "Now."
She still hesitated.
"Sydney, Korin will be aware of what's happened by now, and it won't take him long to deduce I played a part in it. He isn't fool enough to come after me directly but his ego may provoke him into going after something he knows belongs to me and that I value greatly."
"And what would that be?" She asked.
"You." He said simply.
"Why are you really going after Slovak?" She demanded. "I want the truth."
"Look, I get that you think I'm a bad boy, and I won't deny that. But," he said, "Some things are just what they are." Sark turned to an alternate monitor and, accessing the 'MENU', tapped in a number. Up on the screen popped an image of Slovak walking towards a small girl sitting on a bed. The image was grainy but, even so, you could see she was trembling. Suddenly Sydney felt like she couldn't breathe. She could feel the blood rushing from her face.
Sark braced her on the small of her back. "I would have liked to have spared you that," he said quietly, watching the screen as Slovak began unbuttoning his pants. "There are many things you should be spared."
Putting his hand out again he told her, "I have to go,"
"I want to do it." She said. She was talking about something else now and he knew what she meant.
"No." He shook his head. "This isn't a job for you. I'll take care of it," he promised. Oddly, his word was enough for her. She knew Slovak would be dead very soon.
"Go." He ordered. "We don't have much time. I won't be able to concentrate if I can't trust that you're safe."
This time she didn't hesitate. Reaching into her pocket, she handed the disk directly over.
"Don't worry Sydney," he said, taking it, "I'll protect you."
***********************