Chapter 2--SD-6

Sark begins to explain the mission at hand...
"My previous associate, one Damir Bjornon, has recently made contact with me regarding an old matter. We had discussed, while I was still at my position as Irina Derevko's or actually, as some of you may better know her, Laura Bristow's right hand man."

[Insert Jack scowl and menacing twitch here.]

Sydney looks up with disgust, but also curiosity.

"Please move the discussion forward Mr. Sark," says Sloane.

Sark goes on, "Right. We had once thought of Mr. Bjornon as a friend or more aptly, a semi-trustworthy business associate. However, we realized later, that he had been copying all information that crossed his path regarding Rimbaldi's immortal life theories onto back-up disks and selling them to the hightest bidder instead of getting us the information confidentially as had been agreed. Also, he was quite the multi-tasker. He was apparently working with the FBI to bring down our operation. Obviously, the FBI did not know about his covert dealings directly with Irina and I until they were made all too clearly aware by an anonymous letter and recorded tape that they received. Mr. Bjornon, also known as Agent Jeffrey Biel was taken into custody by the Federal authorities. However, when I said Mr. Bjornon contacted me, I did not mean from prison. Damir escaped 3 days ago and left a puzzling message for me which is partially unintelligible. The taped message involves some sort of invention of Rimbaldi's that has to do with the quest for immortal life. It also has some sort of background noises which may or may not be a kind of code. Marshall, I would like to work with you on an individual basis to more closely scruitinize it."

Marshall's eyes dart back and forth between Sloane and Sydney with overwhelming fear. He stammers, "I just don't know...my schedule seems so full..what with the test-flying carpets..and my dentist appointment tomorrow. I'm sure Sloane needs me too."

Sloane speaks directly to Marshall, "No, this is the new priority. We need to find out exactly what Mr. Bjornon has uncovered regarding Rimbaldi and what he intends to do about it."

Dixon speaks up, "Sir, why were we not made aware by the FBI that their intelligence specifically overlapped our own investigation into Rimbaldi?"

"We at the CIA have thought for a long time that the FBI was not to be trusted with so fragile an operation because of the possibility of leaks in their organization. Our contacts at the FBI were trying to create confusion at the time, by mixing false information with whatever truth they had uncovered in order to keep everyone but us in the dark for security reasons. We did not want the enemy, which was Mr. Sark at the time, to know the complete truth," said Sloane.

Sark looks up from his paper with his eyes intent on Sydney, "and yet we are now co-workers, working together to pool all this information both false and true."

Dixon looks down.

Sydney looking directly at Sloane, "Does the FBI know who sent the letter and tape?"

Sark answers, "The FBI is not aware, but Irina Derevko instructed me to write the letter and obtain the recording of Bjornon in order to keep him alive and safe but temporarily out of the way. Apparently, we overestimated the Federal authorities which I'm sure has no bearing on the CIA's capabilities."

Sark continues, "Bjornon is in Reykjavik and needs help getting safely away from the FBI, and he is unaware that I gave him away before. He has vital information on where there is a vault that was built by an avid Rimbaldi collector. It has not been reopened since the collector's death. Bjornon believes that Rimbaldi's detailed theories and writings on immortal life are in this vault. I am unsure as to how Bjornon's message deals with this, but once we find out, we'll have to head to Iceland. There, the vault is guarded by security, mostly composed of ex-KGB. It has also been layered with explosives that only the collector's heir knows the code for. Security can be breached through the ice caves that run parallel to the vault. If we can get right next to the vault's location, at the adjoining wall, we can disarm the bomb from there."