Chapter Six: The Paolo Mission Briefing

"We received Intel from our new allies that this man, Marco Paolo." Sloan clicks a button on the remote in his hand. A picture of a good looking, Italian man in his late 30's appears on the viewing screen. The sound of the name causes Marshall to chuckle. When everyone stares at him, he tries to explain his amusement.

"You know, Marco Paolo, Marco.. Polo. you say Marco and I say polo, the game. I used to play it a lot with my friends when I was younger, like younger then I'm now, a lot younger.." He fades off as he notices Sloan's glare.

"This man is the founder of a secret society called the Bacchanal. This male only society is comprised of the highest government officials and scions of business. They meet one night every 6 months and the location is kept secret until 48 hours before the meeting. The member's anonymity is suppose to be sacred but somehow someone is able to blackmail the members with incriminating tapes. We think that Paolo is responsible. We believe that the blackmail material is being generated and stored in an office at the new meeting site. You will rendezvous with Mr. Sark at a location that he has yet to disclose." It was obvious that Sloan didn't like being kept out of the loop.

"I don't understand how we can work with a known criminal organization." Dixon said. "How do we know that after Sydney does what he wants, he won't just take the tapes and keep blackmailing the members?"

"We don't. That's why once you're in the room you will use a device that will completely erase anything on the tapes. Marshall. Keep it quick." Sloan warned.

Marshall starts to talk quickly without breathing. "This looks like a pretty armband. Shiny yes? It can even turn into four pretty armbands, like this.oh wait. I can't take them apart because once I do; it'll destroy all electrical equipment by acting like a giant magnet. But what you need to do is place or throw each of the armbands into a corner of the room and wait 1 minute. No sound and undetectable." Finishing, he takes a big breath and weakly sits down.

"It's going to be difficult for me to drop those without Sark noticing. And how am I going to be able to get into a men only club? Do we have any contingency plans?" Sydney asked. She could think on her feet but she didn't like going into a situation where she didn't have everything planned to the tiniest detail."

The phone rings and Sloan picks it up. "Bring it in." He says abruptly after a few seconds and hangs up. "A package has arrived from Mr. Sark."

Once the package was brought in Sydney opened it. Inside she found a passport, first class plane tickets to Milan, Italy, and a small disc. She handed the disc to Marshall who checked it for viruses before playing the contents on the viewer.

"Good morning Ms. Bristow. I will be waiting for your arrival in Milan. Once the plane lands, a man holding a sign with the name Sarah Gavin will approach you and bring you to me. Sloan, I would recommend not following or putting any tracking device on her, it will be a waste of time. Ms. Bristow, I hope you shaved this morning. Ciao!"

"Marshall, play it again, I think I recognize the background of where Sark recorded that message." Sydney said.

After a few minutes the screen is still blank and Marshall is typing furiously onto a keyboard.

"Marshall?" Sydney inquired.

"Wait a second, this is absolutely amazing. The original message is gone, it just disappeared. But there is another code imbedded onto the CD. I'm trying to decrypt it."

"Is it a virus?" Sloan asked.

"It's nothing I've seen before. It gives another meaning to the line "this tape will self destruct in 30 seconds. Oh I got it!" Marshall presses a key with a grand gesture and a digital image of Sark comes on the viewer.

"Really Ms. Bristow, shouldn't you be getting to the airport?" The image said.

"It's amazing! It's absolutely the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Genius." Marshall raved.

"What is so amazing?" Sydney asked puzzled.

"He can update you later on, Sark is right, you need to get to the airport." Sloan said ending the meeting.