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Chapter 8
I find myself strapped to a bed in what seems to be a medical lab. I can hear a couple of people approaching from behind me, they come around in front of me. It is Sloane and some man in a white doctor's coat I have never seen before.
"How long will this take, today?" Sloane asked the man.
"I'd say around two hours or so." The man said, looking for something in the cabinet to the left.
I try to speak but nothing seems to be coming out.
"I will tend to her wound first and then begin the experiment."
Sloane just nods and walks off behind me to what I can only presume is the door.
"Make sure she remembers nothing. She must believed she blacked out again."
"Of course, Sir, my patients never remember anything."
"Good, call me when you are done." Sloane says.
The doctor walks over to me with a needle ready to inject me with something, "Of course."
I presume that it is a sedative as I fall unconsciousness.
I suddenly open my eyes and realise I am in medical services. The doctor is sitting across from me taking notes. "I would like to try again," she says.
I nod and close my eyes.
"Now, Sydney I want you to think back to where you went in Hong Kong, there is a great possibility that you were kept there. Did anything on the mission feel familiar?"
"Yes," I nod my head, "the apartment where we located the information."
"Okay, I want you to think back to the apartment." After several minutes of getting me back into the state for hypo regression. I hear the doctor saying;
"I am going to count down from three to one. When I get to one, I want you to tell me where you are and what you are doing. 3-2-1..."
"I'm in the bedroom of the apartment," daylight is streaming in through the windows, "I am sitting on the edge of the bed, putting on my shoes." I feel some arms from behind encirle me.
His hands in encircle me, he begins kissing the side of my neck. I lean my head further sidewards to accommodate him, I reach my right hand and run it through his hair.
"Rachel," he groans, "come back to bed, it's a Sunday. You don't have to go to work."
His offer is tempting but, "I have to go in, these clients won't wait, Chris." I turn my head to meet his lips after a moment I pull away and get up, to go to work.
I wake up. That man was Christopher MacKay, one of Sloane's men. Why was I with him? Sloane had me sleeping with one of his associates.
I tell the doctor about what I was doing and what I'd seen. I get up to leave the room, when the doctor says, "I will type up the report and send it immediately to Director Kendall."
After leaving, I walk over to the main desk of medical services where I approach the on duty doctor to have a once over about my blackout in Hong Kong, which takes around an hour. After an examination and a couple of tests the doctor cannot find anything wrong with me, and lets me go.
I head back to the main JTF, where I can see no sign of my father, Vaughn, Weiss or Kendall. I guess that they must be in the briefing room and head over there. I enter and they are all sitting around the table.
"Sorry, I'm late."
"Good, now that you are here, Agent Bristow." Kendall says, he is the one who wanted me to go to the session and he's making me feel like I am late.
He continues as I sit down, "I have read the report by the hypo- regression doctor and it appears that you may have known Christopher MacKay. I think we could exploit this on your next mission."
"What?" Myself, Vaughn and my father all say in unison.
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"I will state again, Sir, that I do not believe it to be a good idea for Agent Bristow to go on another mission, considering what happened." I state, is it going to lead to another shouting match between myself and Kendall?
"A one off incident Agent Vaughn." he says.
Before I can form a reply, Jack jumps in speaking directly to me, "I share your concerns Agent Vaughn, if Sydney were to have one of these blackouts again, it could endanger her and the mission."
I look at Kendall, who seems to be staring at Jack with fire in his eyes. I mean being challenged by Jack twice into two days, cannot help your leadership status. But every good leader must compromise at one point or another.
"Alright, Jack," he says, the anger evident in his voice, "if Agent Bristow feels that she is up to going on this mission then she can go. We can look at the mission specs first before she makes up her mind." He says looking at Sydney, who nods.
"Good." I say.
"As you missed the briefing earlier, Agent Bristow, I will update you on the situation. Sloane and his associates have arrived in LA."
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"When?" Ignoring me, Kendall continues.
"Our new intel indicates that Sloane has gone to ground in Burbank area of LA, in a 'safe house' bought by his associates." He gives us all files and continues, "Your mission will be to get in there, with the other agents and arrest Sloane and his associates. However, may I remind you that Sloane is on our most wanted list and so 'shoot to kill' is applicable."
Kendall continues to telling us more information about the mission, Vaughn keeps looking at me with pleading eyes begging me not to go.
"Agent Bristow, are you going to be part of this mission?" Kendall asks.
"I will be fine to go." I state. I have got to make sure Sloane does not hurt Vaughn.
"Good. That's the end of the meeting, be back here in one hour."
As we exit the briefing room, Vaughn pulls me to one side out of the way of other agents.
In a low, but hostile tone of voice he says, "Why the hell did you do that?"
"What?" I pretend like I don't know what he is talking about.
"God damn it Sydney, don't play dumb. Why did you agree to go on that mission?" He runs his hands over his face and through his hair, he's frustrated.
"Because I feel up to it and there is a chance to get Sloane, then I am all for it. I also think....." I trail off not sure if I should continue, "That you shouldn't go."
"What?"
"Well, you're obviously frustrated which could compromise the mission."
"Sydney, I am not the issue here. I will be going on this mission to make sure that you are alright."
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We arrive outside the house on the outskirts of Los Angeles. It is rather large house, a large wall surrounding it, however the gates to the house were already open. The agents surround the house, waiting for the order from Kendall to go in. Kendall gives us the order to go.
As we move in there is a lot of fire from what we can only presume are Sloane's guards, however we successfully shoot them down. Around five minutes later, some of our agents report that they have captured one of Sloane's men, he gave himself up. A further ten minutes later, all the agents report in that the house is clear except for the dead guards. Some agents report that they have been injured, I do not take any notice of these reports until I hear that Vaughn is one of them.
I run to the ambulances that are now at the front of the house treating injured agents. I see Vaughn sitting on the edge of the first ambulance being treated.
"Oh my God, are you alright!" I literally scream.
"Yeah, it's just a gash."
I am relieved but it could have been a lot worse, and now that Sloane's got away, there will be more of these confrontations, which would equal more chance of Vaughn getting hurt.
The tears start flowing, when I start examining the what ifs? What if he had been seriously hurt or even killed?
He stands, puts his good arm around me and pulls me down to where he was sitting trying to calm me down. "Shhhhhh."
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We arrive back a couple of hours later at the JTF for a debriefing. It is determined that either Sloane made a quick getaway or he was never actually at the house to begin with. The man we captured was Christopher MacKay, we will begin his interrogation tomorrow. Kendall orders us all home to get some rest. I go back to Will's with Sydney and stay with her, she is still upset over what happened.
The next day, we arrived at the JTF and Kendall had ordered a meeting. He preceded to order Sydney to go and see Christopher MacKay before his interrogation starts. I could see the conflicted look on Syd's face but I assured her I would be watching her through the monitor and I would be there in a flash if she needed me.
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I cannot believe Kendall wants me to go and see him. I mean I was sleeping with this man Sloane had put me with, the more she thought about it, the more disgusted she felt. I feel like I have been violated.
He had been put in Irina's old cell. As I walk towards the cell, I feel the same trepidation that I felt the first time I came to see my mother, here.
I approach the cell, he is sitting on the window sill on the other side of the room. I move closer to the glass, he looks up at me with a look of shock on his face.
"Rachel?," he stutters, "What... are you doing here?" Why doesn't he call me Sydney? Why does he keep this pretence up?
He walks towards the glass. "You know who I really am, stop with the cover. Tell me where Sloane is?" I demand.
"What? Rachel, I don't know where Arvin is. I came to LA, to find you, he told me had a lead that you were out here. I mean you disappeared without a trace."
I couldn't stand how he was acting towards me, like he is genuinely concerned about me, like he loves me.
"Stop, acting like this." I tell him.
"Like what?"
"Like you do not know who Sloane really is, like you..." The tears that had been pooling in my eyes are threatening to spill over.
"Rachel, what are you talking about? Arvin's an international banker you know that. I don't understand why I'm here, why you're here?" His voice was pleading.
The tears begin flowing down my cheeks, he continues to speak but it becomes white noise, a distant sound in the background. I feel myself collapsing to the floor. A moment later she felt herself being pulled up from the ground, it was Vaughn.
"Come on Syd," he whispers, as pulls me up. My sight is blurred from the tears, but I glance in the cell to see Christopher being restrained by two agents as I walk away.
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I take Sydney home to get some rest, that confrontation with Christopher emotionally drained her. After I drop her off back at Will's, I head back to the JTF. When I arrive, Christopher's interrogation has already begun and Weiss tells me that so far Christopher claims that he doesn't know anything about Sloane being a 'terrorist', he believes him to be a high level banker and the adoptive parent of Sydney or as he keeps calling her Rachel.
I listened into the next couple of hours of the interrogation, as why he claims he is in LA with Sloane. He was asked why his apartment in Hong Kong was 'empty' and he replied that it had to have pest control people in.
Just before I decided to leave and see how Sydney was, at the end of the day. Weiss comes up tells me that after extensive interviews, the CIA are thinking about letting him go, as they have determined that he does not seem to know anything about Sloane's activities.
I arrive at Will's and see that Syd is on the couch watching television, she seems to be a lot better than she was this morning. She tells that she had a good rest, and feels better for it. I tell her about what Christopher has said during the interrogation and that the CIA are going to release him tomorrow, if everything checks out.
"I want to be the one tell him." She says.
"Of course, we'll go in early tomorrow." She is the only one he really does know.
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I was taken to a briefing room, similar to the one I was in yesterday. After a few minutes, Sydney came into me, to tell me I had been cleared. The CIA believed I do not know anything about Sloane's whereabouts or his activities. However, they want me to stay at a safe house, just for a while incase Sloane may want to come after me. Sydney gives me the address of the safe house and tells me that there is a rental car in the JTF car park for me, and says that she will visit me later.
I arrive at the safe house after checking the place for bugs, I decide I wouldn't use the phone in the house and go out to find a pay phone. I find a payphone and dial a number.
"Sloane" he answers.
"I have been let go." I state.
"Good. Did they suspect anything?"
"No, Sydney is coming to see me later to help in adjust."
"Excellent, did you find anything we could..."
"I found someone, his name is Michael Vaughn. He seems to be 'involved' with Sydney."
"Are you sure? My last intelligence report stated he was still with his wife."
"I'm not sure about that, but when I collected my car from the JTF car park, Sydney and Mr. Vaughn were there showing public shows of affection."
"This could be just the opportunity we are looking for, I want you find out a little more first, but this looks promising."
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TBC........................