Chapter 36: A Parent's Bond

Jack Bristow woke abruptly, his heart thumping wildly in his chest. Sydney was in pain. He didn't know how he knew but he just knew.

Jack's cell phone rang interrupting his train of thought.

The number on the ID wasn't one he recognized. He let it ring three times before he followed his instincts to answer it.

"Something is wrong with Sydney." Irina said urgently getting to the point.

"How did you get this number?" Jack asked annoyed at the thought that Irina had more information about Sydney then he did.

"Our daughter is in trouble and you want to argue about the fact that I have your cell number?" Irina asked bitterly. She wondered if Jack would ever put family first.

"What happened? Where is she?" Jack asked ignoring the impulse to tell Irina his feelings regarding her lacking skills as a mother.

There was a small pause. "I don't know. I just know that something bad is happening to her. I can just feel it. You must have felt it too." Irina said softly.

"How did you know I." Jack didn't complete the sentence. Irina had tricked him into revealing that he too had felt that Sydney was in pain. "Why did you call me Irina and don't tell me it's because of some nonexistent motherly bond you have with Sydney?" Jack demanded suspiciously.

Irina sighed. "I have a plan to get to Sydney but I need your help."

"Need my help?" Jack asked incredulously. Irina never asked for help, demanded it maybe but never asked for it.

"If you don't want to help me, I can do it without you!" Irina said angrily, she knew it was a mistake to call him.

"I want to help; I was just surprised that you needed anyone's help." Jack said quietly. "So what is your plan?"

"Since Sydney's alias, Sarah Radcliff is an orphan; we cannot pose as her parents. However, we can pose as Sark's alias Aiden King's parents." Irina proposed.

"So we go to the police and fill out a missing person's report and wait until the people who have Sydney brings us in." Jack concluded.

"It'll be risky since we may also attract the Seekers as well." Irina inputted.

"We'll set a trap for them and then interrogate them into giving us information about the Seekers." Jack said strategically. "There may be a problem."

"What?" Irina asked.

"The head of Boyer's security is Brian Casey. He knows I'm CIA since I personally groomed him to be one of the best operatives the CIA has ever known." Jack said.

"Are you telling me that the CIA has a man inside Boyer's organization?" Irina asked surprised. Her intel hadn't informed her of this.

"No, Casey left the Agency several years ago. Before he left, he told me that he'd found a cause, a good cause, something worth living and dying for. Then he disappeared and even I couldn't find him." Jack said a little sadly.

"He was like the son you never had wasn't he?" Irina asked perceptively.

"With a daughter like Sydney, who needs a son?" Jack said avoiding the question.

"So this Casey, he knows that Sydney's alias is a cover?" Irina asked already knowing the answer.

"Yes, I've been receiving encrypted e-mails from him telling me Sydney's progress. He warned me to stay away for Sydney's safety.

"Why didn't you tell me that you had information about Sydney?" Irina asked angrily.

"And why should I tell you?" Jack said a little defensively.

"I'm her mother Jack! She's the reason I wake up every morning, the reason why I worked." Irina stopped abruptly before she revealed her plans.

"Maybe if you trust me with some of your secrets, I may trust you with some of mine." Jack said.

"So the e-mails. how is she?" Irina asked changing the subject.

"She has amnesia. She began to remember some things but the doctor's prognosis is that the memories that surfaced are scared and confused her. It's making her suppress all the other memories." Jack revealed.

"My god! She's absolutely defenseless!" Irina exclaimed worried.

"She's retained all her physical and mental skills; she just doesn't know how she got them." Jack said quickly assuring her. He silently groaned. He hated that Irina still had the power to make him want to protect her. Ironically, she was the last woman in the world that needed any protecting.

"And she has Sark with her; he'd protect her until we get there." Irina breathed as her panic receded.

"Sark is the biggest danger to Sydney." Jack said voicing his main concern. "He may be using her amnesia to shape her into what he wants. I've been told that he's the only one Sydney trusts or talks to."

"He wouldn't! He couldn't. Jack, we have to get to Sydney, fast." Irina urged as her mind was inundated with frightening possibilities.