Title: Once Again
Author: Tasha
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Romance/Action/Adventure but this chapter is kind of General spy-like jabber.
Summary: J/I Takes place after Endgame
Disclaimer: I do not own Alias and am not making any money from this fic.
His colleagues sometimes said it seemed like he was always at work. They were joking, but Jack sometimes felt like that too. He always seemed to arrive early and leave late. Most of the younger agents who still had a healthy fear of the venerable Jack Bristow thought it was because he was so dedicated to the job. Those who knew him well realized that he stayed at work because there was nothing for him at home.
The CIA Operations Centre was fairly empty when he arrived. The traffic on the freeway had been pretty light, even for Los Angeles and so his mood was good. When a young agent waved to him, he actually nodded to her. When her eyes widened in surprise, Jack had to hide his smile. His reputation at the agency was pretty fearsome and yet still young women still waved at him in the mornings. Girls, really, so green that they probably hadn't even thought of killing someone on orders or of destruction and waste so immense that it made you sick. All the things that had been parts of his life for so long that he couldn't remember when they hadn't been. Things that he would deal with today and tomorrow and probably for the rest of his days.
The encoded e-mail that he had opened after logging onto his computer certainly fit into that category. Jack had five main contacts stationed throughout the world. These were senior agents placed in deep cover who reported to him, and only him. All other agents he directed were sent through standard CIA channels, with all new intel going directly to the decoding section and then being passed to Jack. The five, however, sent all information directly to Jack, routed through a secure server. He made contact with them himself, discreetly. Although these agents were CIA, their covers were so elaborate and the intel they gathered so vital, they could not risk being exposed. None of them knew of each other and only Jack and a few high-placed officials at Langley knew who they were or what their covers were.
Jack had a specific, exact code with each agent. Any variations would result in immediate discontinuation of contact. The e-mail he had received the night before was heavily coded but Jack understood it as easily as he had the morning newspaper. He knew the code so well it was almost second nature.
NEW INTEL USUAL CONTACT POINT
CLIMBER
Richard Avellar, code named Climber, had been an agent for 30 years. He was a model agent and could have done exceptionally well at one of the main branches of the agency. He had chosen to take deep cover missions, those that required to agent to take on one persona for many years. To establish themselves in a position and to gain the trust of enemies of the United States of America. To report back to the CIA and sabotage the efforts of these enemies. It was something Jack had a hard time asking of someone. Perhaps it was his history that made him wonder how people could become another person for such a great part of their life and then instantly abandon it when they were no longer needed in that position.
Richard had chosen this life, ostensibly because he wanted to be on the front line all the time. Jack had always thought it was because Richard had not had much of a life himself. His American mother and Brazilian father had never welcomed him. At school, he had faded into the background and Richard had become someone who saw others' lives and wished for them. Richard and Jack had been friends in training at Langley. Two diametrically opposite people whose paths had joined and then veered. Richard's had moved to deep cover ops and Jack's, well, in time, he had "left" the CIA.
When Arvin Sloane had asked him to join his organization, Jack had been thrown. Sloane had promised Jack power and the kind of satisfaction that couldn't be had with the government. To Jack, it never occurred to him not to tell the CIA what was going on. It was then he was asked to become a double. The kind of agent Jack had never considered being, the kind of challenge he relished. Jack Bristow had grasped the opportunity. He had made the apparently difficult transition from CIA to SD-6. Not something hard when the CIA knew what was going on. The trick was to make it appear as if they did not.
During the year of transition and afterwards, the only responsibilities he kept at the CIA were the five deep cover agents. One after the other, he had them placed as Alliance moles. Jack had started to use the intel they gave him to take down the Alliance, from the inside.
In the six months, he had moved Richard from the Alliance to a position with a weapons dealer and crime boss stationed in Brazil named Hugo de Gama. When Sloane's independent activities became clear, it was realized that Richard's mark had previously been a contact of former associates of Sloane's.
Jack entertained the possibility that this new intel was about Arvin Sloane, but dismissed it. Sloane did not often use old contacts, even those of colleagues, and the chance that de Gama was one of his arms dealers was slight. Jack prided himself on being realistic. Luck was not something that entered into his thoughts normally. There was no room for hoping in a profession where dying on missions was common. Facts were the only things Jack allowed to influence his judgement but nonetheless, if de Gama turned out to be Sloane's weapons dealer, it would be a complete coincidence. A wonderful coincidence but nothing more.
Richard had been put in place to allow the CIA a window into the weapons trade in South America, an area they recently had become concerned over. Lately, Jack had simply been relaying Richard's intel to the task force leader of that division but new intel warranted his investigation.
The usual contact point was a phone call, on a secure cell phone, made exactly 24 hours after the time the e-mail was sent. If no contact was made, Richard waited 24 hours again and called once more. This procedure was repeated until contact was made. It was simple but it had worked well to date and was kept. Jack looked at the time on the e-mail. 4:53 pm, Los Angeles time. It was only 7:00 am now, earlier then he had thought.
With a strange sense of impatience, Jack got up to get a cup of coffee before starting to read the rest of his e-mails. Pointless e-mails had started to compound in his account recently. A shame, he thought as he poured the coffee one of the secretaries had started. Adding sugar, he stirred it absently and watched a few men file into the building. They probably had an overabundance of e-mails too. Starting early to wade through the mass of electronic slog. At the bit of humour, Jack smiled to himself and sipped the hot coffee.
Author's Note: I know! I know! This chapter and the one before it have been boring. I am sorry but don't abandon this poor fic because of it. We need you! The next chapter will have some more characters, other then just Jack and his thoughts. I would like to thank those of you who review. If you read the story, please review, even if it is just a line or two. I would really like to know who is reading this. Also, for those of you who are into the details, I have made up a lot about Jack's job at the CIA and the transition to SD-6. I have seen almost all episodes and can't remember learning any of the details but if you guys find any discrepancies with the show, let me know. Thanks, Tasha.
