Chapter 41

At 8:15, Irina was sitting in bed, Sydney nestled beside her, trying not to fall asleep as Linus waited for the Great Pumpkin on television. Sydney had had her bath and was in her nightgown, and had requested to watch the Peanuts Halloween special instead of her usual bedtime story.

Irina woke up a bit when she heard the garage door; Jack was finally home. A few minutes later, he came into the bedroom. "How are my girls?" he asked with a smile, coming over and giving Sydney a kiss on the cheek and Irina a quick peck on the lips.

"Quiet, Daddy, we're watching Peanuts," Sydney said.

"Oh, well then," Jack said with a grin. He slipped his shoes off and made himself comfortable on his side of the bed, on the other side of Sydney.

The three of them watched the rest of the show; when it ended, Irina stood and grabbed her crutches. "All right, bedtime, Sydney."

"Don't forget my story, Mommy!"

"This was your story, remember?" Irina said, gesturing toward the TV. Sydney's expression clearly showed that she had remembered, but had been hoping that her mother wouldn't.

"I can put her to bed if you want, Laura," Jack said, getting up.

"No, Jack, I'll do it. Can I talk to you in the den in a few minutes?"

"Of course," Jack answered, looking slightly surprised. Irina didn't know why; it was high time they talked. She gave him a reassuring smile and shepherded Sydney out of the room.

***

"Did everything go all right today?" Jack asked when she entered the den, where he'd taken a seat in an armchair.

"Yes, it was all right," Irina answered as she settled herself on the couch with her leg stretched out in front of her. She took a deep breath. "Jack, we need to talk about...about what's going to happen."

Jack sighed. "I was afraid of that."

Irina considered briefly how to phrase what she was going to say, but decided that being blunt was the best strategy. "Before all this happened—before I got caught—I was expecting that the KGB would extract me within the next few months."

Jack frowned. "And you were just going to go? Just leave us?"

"Protesting an extraction order would be seen as a sign that I was growing too attached. The KGB would respond by removing the source of the attachment," Irina responded as calmly as possible.

"You mean..."

"They would kill you and Sydney." She paused. "Now, when the KGB decides to extract me, the CIA is going to try to get me first. If they're successful, you and Sydney will have to go into hiding. If the KGB do get me, they'll leave you and Sydney alone—as long as they don't know that I've betrayed them."

Jack looked at her uncertainly for a moment. "Laura, what are you saying?"

Irina sighed. "I'm saying that I think you should try to convince your superiors to let the KGB extract me when the time comes."

"But then, what if they find out that you've been working with the CIA?"

"If they know before they extract me, they'll kill us all before the CIA has a chance to do anything. If they merely suspect, they'll send me to prison for interrogation."

Jack looked surprised and, for a moment, almost frightened, but quickly settled upon a stoic expression. "How can you sit there and talk about going to prison so casually?"

"Because I've been preparing myself for it for awhile now; even if they don't suspect anything, the KGB will feel the need to re-educate me because my mission's been so long."

"Wouldn't it be better to let the CIA pull you out? We'd have to resettle somewhere under new names, but at least we could be together...I don't want Sydney to lose her mother," he added quickly.

Irina realized that the CIA must not have told Jack the terms of her deal. "Jack, the CIA will put me in prison."

"What?" He looked completely shocked, further convincing Irina that he didn't know the whole story.

"My deal with Dawson was that I would avoid the death penalty by cooperating. Once I'm no longer useful as a double agent, they'll send me to prison."

"Oh, God. I can't believe...don't they know you're risking your life?"

She raised her eyebrows. "I've been stealing secrets from your government for ten years, Jack. They're not going to be inclined toward leniency." Jack frowned, but didn't say anything, so she continued. "If you can convince the CIA to let the KGB extract me, we can set up a procedure for me to contact the CIA once I'm back in Russia. I can still work as a double agent; in fact, I'll be able to give the CIA a lot more information there than I can here. And my deal with Dawson is that the longer I work undercover, the shorter my prison sentence will be."

Jack sighed. "How long do you have to be a double agent before they don't send you to prison?"

"Ten years."

He considered that for a moment. "I suppose that's fair, but...God, Laura, Sydney will be sixteen in ten years. What the hell am I supposed to tell her when...when you're gone?"

Irina pressed her lips together. "The KGB will fake my death somehow. The only thing you can tell her is that I'm dead." Jack looked her full in the face, his eyes full of pain. "Jack, by the time I can come back, she'll be old enough to understand the truth, but in the meantime..."

"Yes," Jack said softly. "I suppose it's the only way." There was silence for several moments.

Irina yawned, then swung her leg out and grabbed her crutches. "We should get to bed, Jack. We can talk more about this later." She hoped that with some time to think about it, he would realize that there was no good solution to the dilemma they found themselves in; hers was the best, but far from perfect.

"Yes," he said, getting up from his chair. They went upstairs in silence.