Chapter Twenty-four: All in Good Time

"You really should eat something, Emily dear."

Emily looked up hatefully at the man who called himself Mr. Sark. She had never felt so utterly helpless in her life. All she knew was that she was no longer on the island, that she was in a hotel room in a city that had taken something like four hours to fly to. She'd never been good at geography, and she had been blindfolded on the ride from the airport to the hotel. As far as she was concerned, she literally could have been literally anywhere on the planet.

Well, not anywhere. The place she was at had a relatively warm climate. She knew that much. She didn't think it was enough. Anyway, her grandmother had assured her they'd be leaving again soon. "Not too soon, though," she'd assured her with a smile. "We must give your parents enough time to be just one step behind us."

Emily knew it couldn't be a good thing that her grandmother actually wanted to be caught by her parents. If she had learned anything in the time she had spent in her grandmother's presence, it was that the woman always had a plan. The only thing that kept Emily from completely losing it was the thought that her parents had foiled Irina once. Maybe they'd be able to do it again.

"My parents will probably contact the CIA to help them find me, you know," she told Sark haughtily.

Sark let out a short, mirthless little laugh. "The CIA has better things to do than run along after a couple of ex-agents' kidnapped daughter, love. No, if your grandmother and I know your parents, they will have called Jack Bristow."

"Who's Jack Bristow?" Emily asked. She wondered where her grandmother and Sloane were. They'd been at the hotel for a couple of hours now, and the two of them had disappeared shortly after their arrival.

"He's your grandfather," Sark told her. He seemed to find it quite amusing that she didn't already know that. "A CIA agent, though he was once a double at SD-6, just like your mother. Sloane believed Mr. Bristow was retired from the intelligence game, until we told him of the man's other activities. Needless to say, Sloane is nearly as intent on revenge on him as revenge on your mother."

"Why does he care?" Emily asked bitterly. "SD-6 is still going strong, why does he feel the need for revenge on anyone?"

"It's the principle of the thing, my darling girl." Sark moved around the chair she sat in to squeeze her shoulder, and Emily shuddered. "Arvin Sloane does not like to be made a fool of."

"Great." Emily stared off into the distance. Of course she wasn't allowed to open the curtains. "So you want revenge on my parents. What do you want with me?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Sark assured her. She wished he would stop standing behind her. He was creeping her out. "But I'm sure you'll find, once we've finished our business with your parents and are back at Organization headquarters, that it's much nicer to work with us than against us. If you cooperate, we can make sure that you're kept quite comfortable."

"And if I don't?" she challenged.

Sark moved to stand in front of her, a smile playing about his lips. "We're quite confident that you will. If you don't, I'm quite sure that you won't suffer too badly for us. You're quite important to us, Emily."

"Why?" For some reason, Emily wasn't afraid that they would hurt her. But she was scared to death of what they would expect of her.

Sark's smile didn't put her fears to rest, nor did his words.

"All in good time, dear. All in good time."