Irina was dressing when Jack awoke the next morning. He watched her brush
her hair. When they had first met, back in the days when she introduced
herself as Laura, it had been short, but he preferred it long and flowing
around her. "One of these mornings, I would like to wake up and find you
in bed," he said.
She tensed, and he knew she was surprised. He was, too. He had just told his wife--ex-wife, dead wife, wife--that he wanted to sleep with her again. And again. And again. It seemed like every day that he told himself that he was a fool to trust her, to reveal so much, but he had to talk to someone, and she was the one person who understood.
When he paused in the middle of searching through intel reports and talked about Sydney's first tooth and how much she had loved her Mr. Snuggly doll, she understood. They shared those memories. They had cried over her together in the delivery room. No one else could understand the feelings they had, no matter how many times they mouthed the "I'm so sorry" line.
"I had to get up early. I have to begin planning Sark's extraction today."
Jack froze in the middle of getting out of bed. His first instinct was to find a phone and warn Kendall. Gritting his teeth, he stood and stretched. He noticed Irina studying him in the mirror, particularly his ass. She had told him more than once that she loved that part of his anatomy.
"Who are you taking with you?"
"Lance and his team."
He stopped tying his robe and left it hanging open. "Lance?"
"He's a good man and well trained."
"He still has pimples."
She smiled at him as she put on her makeup. "Yes, but I've seen pictures of a very young Jack Bristow. He had pimples, too."
"And made a lot of mistakes until I learned the hard way. You're going to waltz into a high-security building with a man who can't even legally drink yet leading your team?"
She chuckled. "He's years past the legal drinking age here. It's only in the States he can't drink, and we won't be there for long." Putting down her lipstick, she shrugged. "He's good, and resources are strained right now."
"Taking over major parts of the world in such a covert manner has to be taxing," Jack replied.
She turned on the stool she was sitting on. After staring at him for a moment, she smiled and shook her head. "Of course you noticed what's happening."
"I'm not stupid."
"No," she agreed. "But the Jack I once knew would've tried to stop it."
He found it hard to swallow. "The Jack you once knew had a reason to fight."
It was the closest he had come to admitting, even to himself, that maybe Sydney was not out there somewhere waiting on him to rescue her. And without Sydney, the concepts of good and evil, of a right side and wrong side, were meaningless to him.
Shaking his head, he cleared his thoughts and focused on the now. "Why bother getting Sark out?"
"He's too good to leave in the CIA's hands. Besides, he'll soon start believing we aren't coming for him."
Jack understood. "He didn't even begin to scratch the surface of what he knew about your organization in his debriefing, did he?"
Her grin was answer enough. "We need him."
"You're not going in with just Lance and his team."
Irina looked at him, and he knew then why she had been assigned such an inexperienced man for such an important job. She understood, too. But what would be his decision?
Looking at her, he knew he had no choice. Just as Sloane had intended.
***
"I was surprised to find you in the debriefing with the team, Jack."
"I'm leading the mission."
Sloane's eyebrow lifted in mock surprise. Jack could see the pleasure the other man was trying to hide. He believed he had won some game, but he didn't realize Jack was too tired to play games anymore. "I thought Irina was leading the mission while you searched for Sydney."
Jack sat down across from his former friend. "Irina is also supposed to be searching for Sydney."
Sloane leaned forward and rested his elbows on his hand-carved desk. "There aren't enough leads for both of you to investigate, and I need Sark back in the fold."
"I'm leading that team, Sloane."
"Irina is okay with this?"
Jack remembered his earlier discussion with her. She had protested, but in the end she had agreed that he was the best one to lead them into that building. "She knows that I'm the best option you have. I know more about the security of that building, and I know the people that work there."
"Which could make you a liability."
"But it won't. Let's quit playing games, Sloane. You wanted me to lead the team, but you knew I wouldn't do it if you asked. So you sent Irina in with a young man too inexperienced for the job."
Sloane chuckled. "Let's be totally honest. Yes, I want you on my team. But Irina and Lance can handle the extraction. However, your help may make it an easier."
"Which would make the CIA look even more foolish than if you had gotten him out at a great cost to your team."
Getting out of his seat, Sloane walked over to a wall covered in monitors. He watched the various parts of his organization, and Jack again had to admire what the man had accomplished. If the CIA had not been so foolish in their handling of the man, he could have helped return them to the threat they had been in the early years of the Cold War.
"An extraction is still an extraction, but--"
"You still like to win by the largest margin possible."
"You would think," Arvin began, turning to look at him, "that after all these years, after everything that has happened, I would be able to get past what they did to me."
"What they did to you--"
"What they did to you was almost as bad," Arvin said, interrupting him. "You gave them everything, Jack, and they stopped looking for Sydney within a week."
"There was no evidence for them to follow."
"My teams found clues."
"You have avenues that the CIA doesn't."
"The CIA had the same avenues, Jack. They just chose not to use them." Sloane shook his head as he sat down in the chair next to Jack. "You're still loyal to them."
"No," Jack answered honestly, but he gave no insight into his thoughts. He knew to reveal too much to Sloane would be suicidal. He knew the same could be said of Irina. Even though his head told him that everything he told Irina was told to Sloane, he wanted to believe he could trust her. Even after all the betrayals, he still wanted to believe that not everything in his marriage had been a lie. He wanted to believe that she loved Sydney, too.
"Jack, we've been given another lead." Sloane reached forward and picked up a file lying on his desk. He handed it to Jack as he said, "A few contacts of mine in K-Directorate have informed me about a woman agent being held at one of their facilities."
"Sydney?"
Sloane hesitated a moment before replying. "I don't know."
Jack started flipping through the pages of the file. However, the speed of his movements were more from habit than a real belief that this might be the break they'd been working for. After four months, after so many trails that he'd forgotten some of them, it was hard to have faith, although he continued to act as if he felt it.
Because if he started to act like he no longer believed he would find Sydney, if he started allowing himself to know what a part of him believed was true, he would go insane.
"I want you to trust me, Jack."
"Trust you?" His voice cracked on the words. "How I've missed your poker face," Sloane had said to him in the lost few days of life before Sydney's disappearance. His poker face had been stripped from him raw, and he couldn't even hide his reactions from Sloane anymore, not totally.
There was a hint of anger in the brown eyes across from him. "Yes, trust me. Except for recruiting Sydney against your wishes, I've never done anything to harm you, Jack. I set up everything for the Alliance's fall, but I made sure that you and Sydney would make it out alive. I could've killed you both, Jack, when I discovered your betrayal, but I didn't."
Jack looked back down at the file. "What do you want from me, Arvin?"
"I want you to stay out of this," he replied, pointing to the file.
"If it's Sydney--"
"If it's Sydney, my agents inside of K-Directorate will find out. Not you."
Jack closed his eyes, and thought of the last time he had seen his daughter. He had been in a hospital bed, very much against his will. The CIA doctors had told him he would spend the night, or he would be taken off the duty roster. He had chosen to stay, but now he had to wonder what would've happened if he had asked Sydney to stay instead of freezing her away, an action done more from habit than a real need to protect her now.
When Vaughn had walked into his room a few hours later, Jack had almost rolled his eyes, believing that Sydney had sent him to check on her father. But then he had seen the look of despair in Vaughn's eyes, the numbness that had mirrored his own when a police officer told him that his wife had died in a car accident. He had started to deny Vaughn's words before he even spoke them.
"She's my daughter, Arvin--"
"And my agents are in a much better position to check out this lead than you are," he said, sounding like the boss he used to be.
The hairs on the back of Jack's neck jumped in protest. Working for Sloane was not an option, no matter how much it appeared to the world that was what he was doing. No matter how many contacts Sloane sent out telling the world that Jack Bristow was his again.
Sloane leaned forward. "Jack, go with Irina, get Sark, and let my agents do their work."
Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. The words weren't spoken, but Jack understood that they were implied. Sloane wasn't sure that putting Irina in a potentially dangerous situation was enough of a lure. "I'll get Sark. You make sure those agents of yours get this woman out. Whoever she is."
"Of course," he answered softly. Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes.
Jack stood and walked out of the office. Irina was waiting for him. "Jack, Lance is well trained. He can handle--."
"Sloane offered another incentive." Her eyebrow rose in question, and he rubbed his forehead. "K-Directorate has an unnamed and totally unidentified female agent in custody."
"Arvin has a few double agents in their organization."
"I know."
"Jack, if you do this, Sloane will only start reeling in the rope. You'll be working for him before you even realize it."
He believed the concern that he saw on her face was real, and he wondered if he was crazy. She had betrayed him. More than once. Kissing the top of her forehead, he whispered, "Don't worry. I'm going to get her back."
"No matter the cost?" She shook her head. "Sydney wouldn't approve."
"No, but then she is the best of both of us."
Irina shook her head again. "No, she's the best of you." She walked away before he could reply.
She tensed, and he knew she was surprised. He was, too. He had just told his wife--ex-wife, dead wife, wife--that he wanted to sleep with her again. And again. And again. It seemed like every day that he told himself that he was a fool to trust her, to reveal so much, but he had to talk to someone, and she was the one person who understood.
When he paused in the middle of searching through intel reports and talked about Sydney's first tooth and how much she had loved her Mr. Snuggly doll, she understood. They shared those memories. They had cried over her together in the delivery room. No one else could understand the feelings they had, no matter how many times they mouthed the "I'm so sorry" line.
"I had to get up early. I have to begin planning Sark's extraction today."
Jack froze in the middle of getting out of bed. His first instinct was to find a phone and warn Kendall. Gritting his teeth, he stood and stretched. He noticed Irina studying him in the mirror, particularly his ass. She had told him more than once that she loved that part of his anatomy.
"Who are you taking with you?"
"Lance and his team."
He stopped tying his robe and left it hanging open. "Lance?"
"He's a good man and well trained."
"He still has pimples."
She smiled at him as she put on her makeup. "Yes, but I've seen pictures of a very young Jack Bristow. He had pimples, too."
"And made a lot of mistakes until I learned the hard way. You're going to waltz into a high-security building with a man who can't even legally drink yet leading your team?"
She chuckled. "He's years past the legal drinking age here. It's only in the States he can't drink, and we won't be there for long." Putting down her lipstick, she shrugged. "He's good, and resources are strained right now."
"Taking over major parts of the world in such a covert manner has to be taxing," Jack replied.
She turned on the stool she was sitting on. After staring at him for a moment, she smiled and shook her head. "Of course you noticed what's happening."
"I'm not stupid."
"No," she agreed. "But the Jack I once knew would've tried to stop it."
He found it hard to swallow. "The Jack you once knew had a reason to fight."
It was the closest he had come to admitting, even to himself, that maybe Sydney was not out there somewhere waiting on him to rescue her. And without Sydney, the concepts of good and evil, of a right side and wrong side, were meaningless to him.
Shaking his head, he cleared his thoughts and focused on the now. "Why bother getting Sark out?"
"He's too good to leave in the CIA's hands. Besides, he'll soon start believing we aren't coming for him."
Jack understood. "He didn't even begin to scratch the surface of what he knew about your organization in his debriefing, did he?"
Her grin was answer enough. "We need him."
"You're not going in with just Lance and his team."
Irina looked at him, and he knew then why she had been assigned such an inexperienced man for such an important job. She understood, too. But what would be his decision?
Looking at her, he knew he had no choice. Just as Sloane had intended.
***
"I was surprised to find you in the debriefing with the team, Jack."
"I'm leading the mission."
Sloane's eyebrow lifted in mock surprise. Jack could see the pleasure the other man was trying to hide. He believed he had won some game, but he didn't realize Jack was too tired to play games anymore. "I thought Irina was leading the mission while you searched for Sydney."
Jack sat down across from his former friend. "Irina is also supposed to be searching for Sydney."
Sloane leaned forward and rested his elbows on his hand-carved desk. "There aren't enough leads for both of you to investigate, and I need Sark back in the fold."
"I'm leading that team, Sloane."
"Irina is okay with this?"
Jack remembered his earlier discussion with her. She had protested, but in the end she had agreed that he was the best one to lead them into that building. "She knows that I'm the best option you have. I know more about the security of that building, and I know the people that work there."
"Which could make you a liability."
"But it won't. Let's quit playing games, Sloane. You wanted me to lead the team, but you knew I wouldn't do it if you asked. So you sent Irina in with a young man too inexperienced for the job."
Sloane chuckled. "Let's be totally honest. Yes, I want you on my team. But Irina and Lance can handle the extraction. However, your help may make it an easier."
"Which would make the CIA look even more foolish than if you had gotten him out at a great cost to your team."
Getting out of his seat, Sloane walked over to a wall covered in monitors. He watched the various parts of his organization, and Jack again had to admire what the man had accomplished. If the CIA had not been so foolish in their handling of the man, he could have helped return them to the threat they had been in the early years of the Cold War.
"An extraction is still an extraction, but--"
"You still like to win by the largest margin possible."
"You would think," Arvin began, turning to look at him, "that after all these years, after everything that has happened, I would be able to get past what they did to me."
"What they did to you--"
"What they did to you was almost as bad," Arvin said, interrupting him. "You gave them everything, Jack, and they stopped looking for Sydney within a week."
"There was no evidence for them to follow."
"My teams found clues."
"You have avenues that the CIA doesn't."
"The CIA had the same avenues, Jack. They just chose not to use them." Sloane shook his head as he sat down in the chair next to Jack. "You're still loyal to them."
"No," Jack answered honestly, but he gave no insight into his thoughts. He knew to reveal too much to Sloane would be suicidal. He knew the same could be said of Irina. Even though his head told him that everything he told Irina was told to Sloane, he wanted to believe he could trust her. Even after all the betrayals, he still wanted to believe that not everything in his marriage had been a lie. He wanted to believe that she loved Sydney, too.
"Jack, we've been given another lead." Sloane reached forward and picked up a file lying on his desk. He handed it to Jack as he said, "A few contacts of mine in K-Directorate have informed me about a woman agent being held at one of their facilities."
"Sydney?"
Sloane hesitated a moment before replying. "I don't know."
Jack started flipping through the pages of the file. However, the speed of his movements were more from habit than a real belief that this might be the break they'd been working for. After four months, after so many trails that he'd forgotten some of them, it was hard to have faith, although he continued to act as if he felt it.
Because if he started to act like he no longer believed he would find Sydney, if he started allowing himself to know what a part of him believed was true, he would go insane.
"I want you to trust me, Jack."
"Trust you?" His voice cracked on the words. "How I've missed your poker face," Sloane had said to him in the lost few days of life before Sydney's disappearance. His poker face had been stripped from him raw, and he couldn't even hide his reactions from Sloane anymore, not totally.
There was a hint of anger in the brown eyes across from him. "Yes, trust me. Except for recruiting Sydney against your wishes, I've never done anything to harm you, Jack. I set up everything for the Alliance's fall, but I made sure that you and Sydney would make it out alive. I could've killed you both, Jack, when I discovered your betrayal, but I didn't."
Jack looked back down at the file. "What do you want from me, Arvin?"
"I want you to stay out of this," he replied, pointing to the file.
"If it's Sydney--"
"If it's Sydney, my agents inside of K-Directorate will find out. Not you."
Jack closed his eyes, and thought of the last time he had seen his daughter. He had been in a hospital bed, very much against his will. The CIA doctors had told him he would spend the night, or he would be taken off the duty roster. He had chosen to stay, but now he had to wonder what would've happened if he had asked Sydney to stay instead of freezing her away, an action done more from habit than a real need to protect her now.
When Vaughn had walked into his room a few hours later, Jack had almost rolled his eyes, believing that Sydney had sent him to check on her father. But then he had seen the look of despair in Vaughn's eyes, the numbness that had mirrored his own when a police officer told him that his wife had died in a car accident. He had started to deny Vaughn's words before he even spoke them.
"She's my daughter, Arvin--"
"And my agents are in a much better position to check out this lead than you are," he said, sounding like the boss he used to be.
The hairs on the back of Jack's neck jumped in protest. Working for Sloane was not an option, no matter how much it appeared to the world that was what he was doing. No matter how many contacts Sloane sent out telling the world that Jack Bristow was his again.
Sloane leaned forward. "Jack, go with Irina, get Sark, and let my agents do their work."
Scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours. The words weren't spoken, but Jack understood that they were implied. Sloane wasn't sure that putting Irina in a potentially dangerous situation was enough of a lure. "I'll get Sark. You make sure those agents of yours get this woman out. Whoever she is."
"Of course," he answered softly. Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes.
Jack stood and walked out of the office. Irina was waiting for him. "Jack, Lance is well trained. He can handle--."
"Sloane offered another incentive." Her eyebrow rose in question, and he rubbed his forehead. "K-Directorate has an unnamed and totally unidentified female agent in custody."
"Arvin has a few double agents in their organization."
"I know."
"Jack, if you do this, Sloane will only start reeling in the rope. You'll be working for him before you even realize it."
He believed the concern that he saw on her face was real, and he wondered if he was crazy. She had betrayed him. More than once. Kissing the top of her forehead, he whispered, "Don't worry. I'm going to get her back."
"No matter the cost?" She shook her head. "Sydney wouldn't approve."
"No, but then she is the best of both of us."
Irina shook her head again. "No, she's the best of you." She walked away before he could reply.
