Kaylee yawned to herself as the morning light hit the top of her pillow where her head happened to be resting. She turned over to find Sark staring down at her.
"I can't believe you wouldn't take off the ring," he said.
"Darling, didn't you know it's always been my dream to make love with a fifteen thousand dollar ring on?" she joked. She smiled to herself and just took in the situation she found herself in. She was cuddled up next to the one man in the world who really understood her on a beautiful Australian morning. Said man had just proposed to her in one of the most amazing ways humanly possible with one of the greatest rings humanly possible. It was almost surreal.
"Okay," Kaylee said sitting up. She grabbed a shirt and pants that were laying in the general direction of the bed. "I've wallowed in my perfect world for long enough. What's going on with my mother?"
"That's a subject change," Sark commented. "But you're right. There is something going on with her organization. I figured that the engagement would put you in a good enough mood that you could handle this. We have to leave Newcastle by tonight."
"Why?" Kaylee knew she sounded whiny in every sense of the word. However, she knew that the time would come eventually, but she hadn't looked forward to it. She had made Newcastle her home in every sense of the word.
"Irina has had men doing non-stop research on the Rambaldi prophecies and their meaning. She thinks that she's made progress with one."
"Which one?" Kaylee asked.
"I don't know." She could tell that he was lying to her, but she didn't want to push the point. Not on a day like this.
"Okay. So we're leaving Newcastle. Where are we going to?"
"Where else? Back to Paris and the center of your mother's operations. No more sunshine and beaches, sorry. I think that she's going to throw both of us into the thick of it."
"It makes sense. It's probably been driving Sydney crazy that you and I disappeared with no warning signs. But by now she's let her guard down and she won't expect our sudden return. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised with the frantic life she leads that she doesn't even remember she had a sister."
"Did I ever tell you that you think like your mother?" Sark smiled.
"No, but I'll take that as a compliment."
"That's how I meant it." Sark stood up off of the bed and gave her a devilish grin. "I'm going to get a shower. Care to join me?"
"Give me some time to rest, would you?" Kaylee snorted. "I'm going to get some packing done. Maybe I'll surprise you in a bit."
Sark nodded and headed into the bathroom. She watched him close the door softly behind him. Turning her mind back to the job at hand and away from the extraordinary body of her fiancé, she realized that there was a lot more to do than she thought. Living in one place for three months really allowed one to accumulate a lot of stuff. "And I'm great at the accumulating thing," Kaylee murmured.
She began to rather roughly shove as much as of her stuff as possible into the duffel bags they had. The chore was so consuming that she became pretty much dead to the world around. Which is one of the worst mistakes a spy can make, as she well knew.
A hand reached from behind her and placed itself over her mouth to prevent her from screaming. Another hand quickly plastered her hands to her sides to keep her from fighting back.
"Don't scream and don't try anything," the voice hissed. "I'm not here to hurt you or kidnap you. I just want to share some information I have."
Kaylee nodded in agreement, figuring there wasn't much else to do. She might as well take a chance that this person is telling the truth and doesn't really intend on hurting her. Plus, it would be pretty ridiculous to try anything with Sark only thirty feet away.
The man walked her over to the bed and sat down pulling her down with him. He slid a briefcase out from under the bed and opened it.
"We'll start with these," he said passing a stack of intelligence photos to her. "These are pictures of your mother and Sark meeting here in Newcastle. I thought you might like to know that she lied to you when she promised to stay as far away from you as possible. For your own safety of course," he said patronizingly.
"If this is the kind of bullshit you have, you might as well leave now. So my mother and Sark met here. I honestly don't care as long as I didn't see them. I know that he's still working with her. I don't care."
"Fine. That was just an easy way for me to ease into the harder things," the man admitted. "You can believe me or not. I truthfully don't care either way."
"That's my decision," Kaylee said.
"Your mother has been holding things back from you. Important points of the prophecy that you should know about. The CIA has been analyzing the book that your sister stole from Irina Derevko. We believe that she already knew the contents of the book before it got stolen."
"That's bullshit, too," Kaylee said getting a little loud in her anger. "My mother was so pissed off when Sydney stole that book. It was like her whole investigation was going to end without that little piece of the puzzle."
"Quiet down or I'll have to go back to muffling you," the man hissed. "Answer me this. If you're mother was so put off by the theft, why was it so easy for her to rebound from it? She was doing business as normal by the very next day." The man paused for Kaylee to answer, but he quickly realized she wasn't going to. "Irina Derevko has her own plans, and I think, in that instance, the CIA played right into them. She didn't need the book because she had already had different sources that gave her the same information."
"What is this elusive information you keep referring to?"
"It's what your mother has been keeping from you. What do you know of the Rambaldi prophecy?"
Kaylee thought for a minute about whether or not she should be talking of such sensitive subjects with this random stranger. She settled on the fact that she really had nothing to lose by doing so. "I know that I'm the woman in Rambaldi's Page 47 prophecy. That means I'm supposed to render the world unto utter devastation or something to that effect. However, there is a bigger prophecy than that one. My mother didn't have much knowledge on it since the book containing it was stolen."
"Irina Derevko has been lying to you about that," the man said. "She knows a lot more about Rambaldi's true prophecy than she let on. As the woman in the prophecy, you will render the greatest power unto utter desolation. You are also in Rambaldi's true prophecy. It speaks of a woman who will be betrayed by all she holds dear including the man whom she trusts most of all. Alone and hurt, she will send herself into a downward spiral which will inevitably kill her. The woman in the prophecy… you, Kaylee… are going to die."
Nothing this man said added up, and she was quick to point that out. "How is that possible? I'm supposed to die and be alive to render that great power thing?"
"Rambaldi's timeline has never been clear," he admitted. "No one is sure yet whether the Page 47 prophecy occurs before or after the true prophecy."
"So, why is this so important for you to inform me in such a shady way? My mother would have told me of this development as soon as she thought I could handle it."
"You mean she would tell you when it first suited her needs?"
"Don't pretend like you know her." Kaylee's eyes flashed with the anger she was beginning to feel inside. It didn't help that the man's reaction was to blatantly laugh in her face. "What the hell is so funny?" she screamed.
The man immediately sobered up realizing his reaction was inappropriate if his goal was to persuade Kaylee that her mother was using her. Plus it had made her upset enough to scream. Screaming was not good because Sark may hear her and come barely out of the bathroom guns blazing. The man cleared his throat and continued, "The point I'm trying to make is that your mother knows this prophecy will kill you. In fact, she's planning on it. She raised you to be expendable. To assume the role that was intended for Sydney. She raised you to die."
"You're claiming that my mother has known the woman in Rambaldi's prophecy was going to die a not so fun death. Knowing that, she raised me to take a fall because she didn't want Sydney too?" Kaylee couldn't believe the lies this man was spinning. "Complete bullshit! You heard me. I said complete bullshit!"
"Let's back up a step," the man said seeing that she was getting obviously upset. "Irina Derevko was the original woman in the Page 47 prophecy. When she learned that this highly coveted role would eventually end in her death, the KGB gave her the task of marrying a CIA agent. That agent's genetic code combined with hers was almost one hundred percent guaranteed to create another person with the same genetic anomalies that Rambaldi predicted. That would save her from facing her grim fate. On a side note, she was also sent to steal plans of a secret government operation entitled Project: Christmas."
"I know all about that," Kaylee said. She crossed her arms and looked at the man impatiently. "Stick to the stuff that deals with your whole conspiracy theory directly."
"Irina was pleased to find that the first child she had did, indeed, have the same genetic anomalies. But then something completely unexpected happened." The man paused. "She actually began to love the child. Irina Derevko developed the normal feelings a mother has for the child they have carried for nine months. She put her KGB mission on hold for six years because of the love she developed for Sydney."
"That explains why she stuck around so long. I always wondered about that. I knew that a good agent like her couldn't have taken that long to fulfill such a simple mission."
"You are very smart, young girl," the man said in admiration. "Sadly, though, Irina's superiors found out about the situation. They put pressure on her to finish the job she started, and she realized this second life she created wasn't going to last that much longer. So she got pregnant as quick as she could. That would be you, Kaylee."
"No shit!" Kaylee was starting to get upset with this man.
"As soon as she knew that she had the key to saving Sydney from Rambaldi's Page 47 prophecy, she cut her losses and staged her own death. And that's the true reason why Irina Derevko raised you so far away from your sister and father. She needed to keep you from establishing too many emotional connections. The less, the better. You see, she needs you to be willing to die to make the prophecy come true."
"So now I have to willingly give myself up to die?" she asked.
"By the time this prophecy is over, you'll be begging anyone to put you out of the misery that your life will become."
"Listen, you sick bastard. I'm tired of hearing this crap you made up, probably in another sick attempt by the CIA to get me to leave my home." She paused. "Answer me one thing. Why the hell should I believe you, some stranger who has broken into my home, over everyone I know and trust?"
"Because I know firsthand the kind of person Irina Derevko is, and I know what's she's capable of."
"That's a lie if I ever heard one. There's no way my mother ever knew a schmuck like you."
"Oh she knew me all right." The man paused as he heard the shower turn off. His time alone with Kaylee was about to end. "I'm Jack Bristow. Her husband… and your father."