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Sydney stared at the file in her hand.  Kendall had given her a small assignment while they waited for new intelligence on Sloane and her mother.  He wanted the report back by that afternoon, but she couldn't seem to focus on it.  The image of her father, gaunt and pale from his six-month sojourn in prison haunted her. 

"Miss Bristow, um, Sydney, I put together those songs you wanted on a CD. I added a few of my favorites.  Oh, maybe I shouldn't have. I thought you might like them, but then maybe not.  My mother doesn't like them.  It could be because she's, you know, older, but she's a woman like you and maybe that is why..."

"It's okay, Marshall. I'm sure I'll love it."  She smiled up at him. "Thank-you."

The sound of the music soothed her as she started on the report.  Then, out of the blue, an idea formed.  Quickly she made her way to Marshall's workroom. 

"I need a favor, Marshall."

"Anything, Miss ..., I mean, Sydney."

"What I'm going to ask is not exactly legal and you could get into trouble if anyone found out."

He looked at her for a moment, eyes troubled. "I trust you. You wouldn't ask me if it wasn't important, right? Because if it wasn't important it wouldn't be illegal and ..."

"Right.  It has to do with my Dad."

"Agent Bristow?"  Marshall looked a little scared. "He won't kill me if he finds out, will he?"

"No. He won't have to know."  She took a deep breath, trying to decide where to start.  "After my mother 'died', the FBI arrested my father as an accessory to my mother." Marshall let out a shocked gasp.  "They kept him for six months before he was finally cleared.  I believe there are tapes of his interrogation. Vaughn told me that all the old videotapes were transferred into computer files several years ago.  I need to see those tapes. Do you think you could access them for me?"

"Finding them should be a piece of cake.  I have this really cool program.  It can find anything.  I once had it search the internet for an obscure Klingon word and it found it in like twenty seconds.  It was so amazing."

"Marshall, there might be a flag attached to the file. You will really need to be careful."

"Difficult things I can do with ease, the impossible takes just a little longer." he joked.

"And Marshall, thanks.  You don't know how much this means to me."

Sydney finished up her report by early afternoon.  She would have finished it sooner, had she not kept watching for Marshall's return.  When he hadn't made it back to her by 4:30, she started to worry. Had he triggered any of the security flags and been hauled off without her knowledge? Just when she decided it was time to go in search of him, Marshall entered the room.  He looked a little pale and shaken.  She bit her lip.  Something had gone wrong.

"I'm sorry it took so long, but there were a lot of booby traps and I had to act like Luke Skywalker and ..." He stopped and took a deep breath.  "I'm not sure you should watch these Miss, er, Sydney.  I had to check to make sure they copied okay and ..."

"It will be okay, Marshall.  It's really important." 

She waited until he was out of sight before shuffling through the discs. There were eight of them, copied on both sides. Her hands trembled as she placed the first one in her computer. She could feel the beat of her heart as she nervously placed the headphones over her ears.

[i]"Good afternoon, Agent Bristow." The man behind the desk was in his late fifties and wore the air of one used to command.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Young Jack Bristow stood at almost military attention before his superior.  There was a look of deep sadness around his eyes and in the bend of his shoulders.

"You were married to Laura Bristow."  It wasn't a question.  Jack looked at the director, obviously puzzled. 

"Yes, sir."

"Tell me Agent Bristow, have you ever heard the name Irina Derevko?" 

"No,sir. I don't believe so."  Jack shifted slightly, beginning to feel uneasy. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed two security guards placing themselves by the directors door.

"A courier brought this file over this morning. One of our KGB moles found this and forwarded it to us."

"You want me to investigate Ms. Derevko?"

"Oh, I think you've already 'investigated' her enough."  

"Sir?"

"It says here that she was assigned to meet and seduce an up and coming CIA agent, then steal secrets from him. According to this file she was quite successful. She managed to pull it off for over ten years." The director gave Jack a hard look.  "Do you want to know the name of the agent? No?  Here, let me read it for you?  Jonathan D. Bristow. Name strike a bell?"

"No, I don't believe you."  Jack stood, eyes blazing.  "Why are you doing this?  My wife's name was Laura.  You know that.  The FBI did a background check on her and she was clean. There must be some mistake."

"No mistake.  A photograph came with the file.  Your 'wife', as you call her, was really Irina Derevko.  Were you helping her, Agent Bristow?"

"Of course not.  My wife was not a Russian spy.  Her name was Laura and she died two weeks ago. You went to her funeral."  Jack ran a shaky hand through his hair.  "This can't be happening."

The director signaled to the guards and they entered the office.  Jack looked at them, then the director.  "I'm sorry, Agent Bristow, but the FBI wants you on suspicion of treason.  The guards will escort you to a holding facility until they pick you up."

"Wait. I have a daughter. She's only six.  I need to make arrangements with my sister." Jack was frantic by this time.

The director considered for a moment.  "Give me her name and number.  You can meet with her before we release you to the FBI."

"Thank-you." Jack whispered. [/i]

Sydney stopped the disk, shaken by the scene she had just witnessed.  She looked down at the remaining discs. The key to understanding the man her father had become was buried in the videos, of that she was certain.  The first one had been bad enough and she could only imagine the rest would be worse.  If her father made it through, she could too, she resolved and quickly shoved the discs into her laptop case and headed out the door.  She had a date with her Dad to watch their Disney trip tonight.