"You'll give this to the Covenant," said Sydney, handing the memory chip to Sloane. They sat together in the rear of a limo speeding down a Chinese highway. "It contains the corrupted copy of the operating system. The Covenant will track it back to the Chinese prototype, which has also been corrupted. They won't suspect that you've betrayed them." Sydney shifted her position on the seat slightly, trying to surreptitiously increase the distance between herself and Sloane. It was insufficient to quell her nausea at the thought of working with him on their first mission together.
"I see," said Sloane wryly. "I wonder how many times your handler said something like that to you before you were about to give me something like this? A small object of tremendous value that I asked you to steal for SD-6 that you then rendered useless in order to prevent its exploitation by the Alliance."
"It happened on occasion," said Sydney sarcastically, looking out her window.
"There was a time you trusted me. . . ,"
"Julia, come here and give me a hug." Julia looked up with delight and, spying her father, ran to him and wrapped her arms around his legs.
"You're here! I thought you wouldn't be coming until tomorrow!"
Sloane bent down to kiss her on the head. "I was able to get away early."
"I drew some pictures for you, Daddy."
"Why don't you run and get them, honey, while I talk to Mr. Peters." Sloane watched her scamper a way, an adoring look on his face.
"How is she progressing, Lazarey?" Sloane's voice turned brusque.
Lazarey shook his head in awe. "She's the best of any I have trained. A virtuoso with a knife. No remorse. She never breaks back to her other self."
"Her 'other self' isn't all that happy, Lazarey. Maybe it's just easier for her to forget."
Lazarey shrugged. As if he cared about the happiness of the test subjects. "Why are you here early?"
"Bristow's mission finished sooner than anticipated. I've got to get her back to her camp. Make sure she has lots of memories of singing around the campfire."
"No problem. She'll sing all the way back in the car. It will drive him crazy."
"Daddy, look!" Julia had returned and tugged on Sloane's arm insistently.
"Those are beautiful, sweetheart. Would you like to have a picnic on the way home?"
"Oh, yes!"
"See you next summer, Julia," said Lazarey.
"That was before I knew who you were. . . That was before I knew who I was. . . ," said Sydney.
"Oh, no," corrected Sloane. "It was more recent than that."
Jack lay supine on the stretcher, floating in and out of consciousness. In the next room Il Dire hummed.
"Tell me, Jack. Tell me the trigger phrase."
Jack shook his head groggily. Sloane cursed. Dammit. When had Jack changed the trigger? He'd kept it the same all through Sydney's childhood, having safeguarded it with Arvin in case anything happened to him. He'd never suspected that Sloane was supplementing Sydney's conditioning. Had he changed it when he became a double? When Sydney was recruited?
No matter, thought Sloane grinding his teeth together. He *would* have it. With Emily gone, Julia was all he had left. "Turn up the IV," he ordered. They had been at this now for 12 hours. Jack had buried it deep.
Two hours later, he had his answer. How predictable, he smirked. From Tolstoy's War and Peace. Still secretly fascinated with all things Russian. "Will he remember this, Doctor?"
"No. He'll wake up disoriented in a couple of hours and remember nothing."
"Excellent." Sloane could hardly wait to see Julia again. And he had. 12 hours later.
"The day you were found in Hong Kong," he continued, "your. . . resurrection, as it were. . . this letter arrived at my office." He removed a letter from his coat pocket and held it out to Sydney. "My analyst confirmed what I recognized instantly, what I'm sure you'll verify on your own. . . the handwriting is yours."
Sydney took the envelope with a puzzled expression on her face. She opened it to find a small manila envelope that said "For Sydney" on it. Opening it, she found a key and a small piece of paper with a set of numbers on it.
"I'd never seen that code before," said Sloane, interrupting her thoughts. "I didn't want to offer it to anyone else. Unfortunately, I couldn't decipher it myself. But since those items were once in your possession, I thought you might want them back."
Sydney stared at the key in her hand and then at the code. "Thanks," she said shortly. She needed to discuss this with her father.
Sloane leant back in the seat of the limo and closed his eyes. Yes, this would do nicely. A final nail in Irina's coffin. He was sure Irina had been the meddler that had reversed Julia's programming; this letter had confirmed it. He'd let Jack do the work of finding her. Then she could be eliminated, if Jack hadn't done it first.