Chaper 9

Part 2

Jack had made the decision to contact Irina a month after Sydney died. That was when Robert Lindsey showed up in Op Center and informed the CIA that his office was taking over the investigation of her death. From the first time that Jack meet him, he did not trust Lindsey or anyone that worked with him.

Jack was getting nervous. He was concerned that Lindsey suspected he had been in contact with Irina. Although she wasn't the source of all his information, she was supplying him with good deal of what he was passing on to the CIA.

Five weeks after Sydney's death, Jack met with Irina for the first time. These days, everything he did was measured on a calendar that started on the day of her death.

They meet for the first time in a musty smelling hotel room in Venice. Irina had been waiting two days for him to arrive. He gave no explanation of what delayed him.

When he walked into the room Irina rushed to him and threw her arms around his neck. It didn't take long for her to realize that Jack was not returning the embrace.

She stepped back and said to him, "Ok, Jack. If that's how you want it."

"What do you have for me?" he replied, coldly.

She motioned for him to take a seat at the table. She shared with him the information that she has acquired. She watched him as he reviewed her intel. It had only been a few months since she saw him last, in Panama, but she was shocked at how gray he had become in those few months.

He refused her offer of anything to eat or drink.

He passed onto her the intel that he had acquired. They made arrangements to meet again in the three weeks.

After packing his briefcase, Jack turned to Irina as though he wanted to say something to her.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

He reached into his pocket and handed her a small box. She opened the box and saw that it contained the earrings she had given to Sydney. "Thank you," she said as she struggled to hold back her tears.

"I took them from her house. I cleaned them the best I could," he informed her as he turned and left the room.

"They look as good as new," she said to the closed door.

tbc