Chapter 38
The door opened to the room, just as Irina Derevko clicked the TV off. Jarod and Mallory had just witnessed Melanie get shot at point blank range in a holding cell. Jarod was numb with shock and guilt. Mallory did not know what to feel.
A Sweeper came in and whispered something to Irina. She frowned.
'I'll be right out.' was all she said. The Sweeper left the room, slamming the door behind him. Irina turned back to Jarod and Mallory.
'I'm going to have to put this interrogation on hold. It seems your father ...my husband, has disappeared.'
'Surprise, surprise.' Mallory said sarcastically. Jarod suspected Sidney and Vaughn had Mr. Parker, and were probably interrogating him.
'I want you to think about my question while I'm gone.' Irina said.
Jarod stood up.
'Brian and Abigail are not part of this and they never will be. I'm here. I'm willing to do whatever you ask.'
Mallory stood up as well and walked up to Irina.
'We're not staying. We're not doing anything for you, and that little TV presentation, while enlightening, didn't do the trick.'
Irina gave her the barest hint of a smile.
'Your twin sister dying, means nothing to you?'
'First time I'm seeing her lady, so, I don't know what to tell you.'
'Hmmm. Well, actually, your reaction makes me all the more certain that you do belong here. Oh, and Melanie isn't the only one that's going to die.'
Irina turned and walked over to the remote. She pointed it at the TV, turning it on again. She then punched a few buttons and Emily came on the screen. Jarod rushed up to the image, then glared at Irina.
'What is she doing here?!'
'You know, believe it or not, I didn't have to kidnap her. My sister truly failed that poor girl...she's delusional, thinking that she's going to steal my daughter's boyfriend from her...though I told her she had a chance. Anyway, think about your answer, like I said.' Irina said coolly, before turning and walking out of the room. The door locked behind her.
Mallory turned to Jarod.
'Are the kids really in a safe place?'
Jarod tore his eyes away from Emily's image. He nodded.
'They are...but I don't think you'll approve.'
'You don't think I'll approve? As long as they're not here, I'd let them live with devil himself! Where are they?'
Jarod looked around. He could see no bugs or listening devices, still, one could never be sure. That and he wasn't up to the confrontation that was due to ensue, once his wife heard that Major Charles and Catherine Parker, had their children.
He put a finger to his lips, and Mallory nodded, mentally kicking herself for being so stupid! If Jarod had blurted it out right now, Irina Derevko and the Centre would have their children to experiment on.
'I'm sorry about Melanie.' he said to her. Mallory gave him a blank look.
'It's okay to feel something, you know.'
'Jarod, don't look at me with that...that look!'
'What look?'
'The one you always give people that you feel sorry for! I didn't know her, so there's nothing to feel! And I'm more upset with myself for getting us in this situation! I should've never went to visit Brigitte! Tell me what's happened since then?'
Jarod reached for the remote control and picking clicking the channels. Sydney's cell was the next one that came on. Mallory gasped!
'Sydney is here too?! God! Michelle and Nicholas must be beside themselves!'
Jarod was struck at the power of that memory drug. Mallory really didn't seem to have any recollection that not only had she been on a plane with Sydney, just hours ago, but that in all likelihood, Sydney told her about Michelle's death already.
Jarod turned off the TV and faced her. He put his hands on her shoulders.
'Honey, Michelle is dead. Lyle killed her and kidnapped Sydney, just like they did you. They want the Centre back, with the old crew and some new blood...our children. We will find a way out of here.'
Mallory smiled at him, reaching up and smoothing down some of his hair.
'I know we will. But we can't let anyone else we care about die.' he said. 'You know, Melanie was very brave. She wanted to help us. I think she felt an instant connection to our family.'
'Jarod, I don't really want to talk about her now...'
'Fine. But you are going to have to face the loss of your sister. You can't just hide away your feelings...that's not what our family is about anymore. That's not what we're about anymore.'
Mallory nodded and Jarod moved in to kiss her. He was still holding onto the remote as he pulled her into his arms. It came on again and something made Mallory open her eyes. She then broke off the kiss!
'Jarod! Look!'
Melanie's cell was onscreen and they both watched as she got up from the ground of her cell. The door was locked again and she looked around, fearful. She didn't appear to have a mark on her.
'What the hell is this?' Mallory asked.
Jarod was confused as well.
'I guess the whole thing was a show.'
'Why?'
'Maybe they think Melanie might be more valuable alive than dead?' Jarod reasoned.
'Yes, but Derevko isn't that type of operative. She leads by example. I mean if Melanie isn't dead, then what about the CIA agents?'
Jarod began fumbling with the remote until he found the room the agents had been in. It was now empty! He looked at Mallory, who came closer to the TV.
'Why would Irina Derevko show us fake shootings and fake dead people?' Mallory asked.
Jarod turned from her back to the screen. He then looked at his wife again.
'None of this is what it's supposed to be....I don't think SHE really wants what the Centre wants.'
Mallory shrugged.
'It wouldn't be the first time Derevko claimed to be a Centre team player when she really had another agenda. She mentioned some sort if virus...what is that all about?'
But Jarod began looking around the room. He then looked up towards the ceiling and saw some wiring hanging out of a corner.
'There's a camera in here too. Probably one with sound.' he said quietly. Mallory eyed her husband.
'Okay, Jarod, I was never as quick as you. What are you trying to say? I can tell by your face that you've figured something out.'
'I think my dear aunt was giving a performance, with someone's help. I thing my aunt could be on the side of good after all.'
'Yeah, honey, that's kind of a big leap in logic. She's up and married my father...where is Brigitte? Do you know? Where is Bobby?'
Jarod eyed her, now concerned about the effect that damned mind erasing drug was having on Mallory.
'Honey, when you were given that drug again, you reverted back to who you were before. You thought you were hunting me. You didn't remember what we had or the family that we built. You called me, on your cell phone and told me that Irina killed Brigitte.'
Mallory's eyes widened!
'Oh my God! Why? Why would my father do this? Doesn't he care....no of course he wouldn't. I saw what he really was on those DSA's.' she said, rubbing her face tiredly. Jarod took her in his arms and kissed the side of her head.
'I would be willing to bet that Brigitte isn't dead either.' he whispered. Mallory pulled away from him.
'Then why? Why? Why has this whole thing been done? My father didn't give me that drug for no reason!'
'No, I think your father, Lyle and Raines were dead serious. Otherwise Lyle wouldn't have been broken out of prison. I think Irina Derevko is, or has, already pulled a double cross.'
'But she had to have had help? Oh God, Jarod! If anyone can hear us then we've given away the woman's plan!'
'I think that's what she was counting on.' Jarod answered, turning back to the TV. He clicked the channels and found that Emily, Melanie and Sidney's cells were empty. Mallory's mouth dropped open!
'Jarod, our holiday has been ruined here by someone's sick game! We need to get out of here and find Sidney and Vaughn! I thought Sidney said they were watching this place?!'
But Jarod's fists began to clench and unclench! If none of those agents were dead, and neither was Melanie, and now suddenly Sydney and Emily's cells were empty....then chances were that Brigitte wasn't dead...and maybe, just maybe, Michelle wasn't dead either!
Then that meant one other thing: that there had been NO need for him to turn Brian and Abigail over to his father and Catherine Parker, the two people that seemed to have clearly gained the one thing they had longed for: custody of their grandchildren!
'Damnit!' Jarod cursed. Mallory eyed him nervously.
'Jarod? Jarod what is it?'
'We have to get out of here! I'm willing to bet that that damned door isn't even locked!' he hissed, grabbing her hand and pulling her along, as he whipped open the door. The two of them hurried down a hallway. The place appeared to be totally empty, as they ran down hallway after hallway!
Jarod's mind was spinning! How complicit had everyone been in this scam?! Or had Sydney, Michelle, Nicholas, Emily, Melanie, even his cousin Sidney, Vaughn, had they all been in this together?!
Mallory, for her part, sensed a simmering rage in Jarod, that she didn't think she had ever seen before, not even when she was chasing him all of these years! She herself, just wanted to get back home to Brian and Abigail, and never let them go again. The rest, Mallory would think about later.
Vaughn picked up a computer and threw it across the room! Sidney was pacing furiously!
The pair could not believe how they had been kept out of the loop on this one!
And Mr. Parker wasn't too thrilled either! That goddamned Derevko woman had been working for the CIA the whole time!
'You cut a deal with my mother?! Did my father know?' Sidney asked, seething.
Marcus Dixon, head of their CIA division, and her and Vaughn's superior, looked at them both calmly.
'No.' was all he said.
Vaughn squinted at him.
'You don't seem to be getting what we're saying here! This trick that you pulled to bring down the Centre, once and for all, may have cost Jarod and Mallory their children!'
'We have agents watching Major Charles and Catherine Parker. And let me just say something, I really don't appreciate putting agents on such a trivial matter. The two of them are hardly enemies of the state. They're just grandparents that want to spend a little time with their grandchildren. This is a family dispute that we really should be staying out of.'
'I disagree!' Mr. Parker barked. Dixon glared over at him.
'Nobody asked you anything!'
But Mr. Parker figured he had nothing to lose now! Once he was brought back to this secret CIA location, and told all he knew, he realized he was off to prison somewhere. Brigitte, not being dead after all, would take their son and disappear to parts unknown. Lyle, God knows where the hell he would be sent, or Raines for that matter. But he did know one thing: if things had to be this way, then he wanted his Angel to raise her own children! Catherine didn't deserve grandchildren after the way she had run off and lied to him about Melanie!
'The woman can't be trusted! I wouldn't be surprised if that skin disease of hers was fake as well! I'd get after her if I were you!'
Vaughn, Sidney and Dixon knew the old man was just trying to cause trouble, but it just brought out all of Sidney's doubts about Catherine Parker and Major Charles's motives where Brian and Abigail were concerned. Something was not right with those two, and at this point, Sidney didn't know if they would ever find out what the truth really was!
'Jarod's my cousin. I should've known about this.' Sidney repeated.
'Why? So you could warn him?'
'You know me better than that! I am a total professional.'
Dixon rubbed the side of his face tiredly.
'I know that. I know that about you both! But, it was decided that the two of you were too close to the situation. And Major Charles and Catherine Parker would've never even factored into this, if Mallory Russell's twin sister had not been kidnapped. That we didn't anticipate. But Irina warned us step by step, what would eventually be happening with the Russell's.'
'So,' Vaughn asked sarcastically, 'did she also warn you that that damned drug could've killed Mallory Russell?'
Dixon rolled his tongue around in his mouth.
'We couldn't let another Centre start up again, okay? She would've been collateral damage.'
'Nice!' Vaughn snapped. Mr. Parker glared at Dixon as well.
'You people worked with us many a time over the years. I have no doubt that some of Jarod's ideas were used on some of your agents' missions.'
Dixon's phone rang, sparing him from having to answer the loathsome old man.
'Dixon.' he said, then moved away from Vaughn and Sidney. Vaughn walked up to Sidney.
'It will be alright. Maybe in the end, Jarod and Mallory will be just glad that they have nothing to fear anymore.'
'We could've handled this without them. And I'm not buying my mother's sudden change of heart! Something else is going on here!'
Dixon hung up the phone and turned back to them.
'We've raided the building. Everyone is okay. Everyone will be reunited here, in just a little over a half an hour.'
'And Jarod and Mallory? Is Mallory okay?' Sidney asked.
'Yes. Your mother came through in every possible way. Lyle, Raines, the Sweepers, they were nabbed by the very agents they thought they had killed. Irina helped everyone that needed to be dead, look dead. Jarod and Mallory were found in the basement part of the Centre...Melanie, Sydney...his wife...everyone will be fine.'
Sidney shook her head with disgust.
'And my mother?'
'Your mother is now a free woman, Sidney. I'm sorry if that doesn't sit well with you, but it was for the greater good.'
Irina Derevko slipped into the woods as the agents began swarming the Centre. She hid behind a tree, as Jarod and Mallory were lead out by agents.
Irina then began walking. She walked for about fifteen minutes, until she found the man she was supposed to be meeting, standing next to the assigned tree.
Arvin Sloane was peering through a pair of binoculars at the Centre scene. He lowered the binoculars.
'Are we even?' she asked, eyeing him.
'We are. Thank you for your part.'
'I did nothing, Arvin. I had no way of knowing that Jarod would send his children to Major Charles and Catherine Parker.'
'But I did. Because I know him so well. I've given them money...soon, they will disappear with the children. Their grandkids will replace the children that they were not allowed to raise.'
Irina eyed him.
'All of this because Mallory Russell tried to poison you?' she asked. She had helped him fake his own death, all of those years ago.
'No.' was all he said. His eyes became hard. Irina realized he wasn't going to tell her anymore, and she turned and began walking back towards the Centre. While Mr. Parker, Raines and Lyle had wanted the children, it was Irina that really pushed it and threatened Jarod...all at Arvin Sloane's insistence.
She was curious about something else: although Irina had helped most everyone fake their own deaths, Brigitte was really dead. When the CIA realized that, Irina would have to either explain why she was really dead, or go on the run again. But Sloane had insisted on her death.
But what she did not know, was that Sloane's reasons went far beyond some rejection on Mallory's part. He had never cared for her that much anyway. As a matter of fact, it had been his intention to murder her shortly after the ceremony, if the marriage had ever come to pass.
Then, Sloane would've hunted down Jarod himself and killed him as well. After all, it was Jarod that had pushed his son, Thomas, into that ill-fated relationship with that Parker woman! And it was Brigitte that had murdered him. Tommy, the son that his late wife Emily had thought had died during childbirth, but that he himself had given away, for the child's own safety....
Now, Jarod and Mallory Russell could go through the pain of not having their children with them, as well. They could go through the pain of having their children raised by someone else. Sloane had used their deepest fears against them...the Centre taking their children and used it to take their children anyway. It was better than killing them, Sloane thought.
The door opened to the room, just as Irina Derevko clicked the TV off. Jarod and Mallory had just witnessed Melanie get shot at point blank range in a holding cell. Jarod was numb with shock and guilt. Mallory did not know what to feel.
A Sweeper came in and whispered something to Irina. She frowned.
'I'll be right out.' was all she said. The Sweeper left the room, slamming the door behind him. Irina turned back to Jarod and Mallory.
'I'm going to have to put this interrogation on hold. It seems your father ...my husband, has disappeared.'
'Surprise, surprise.' Mallory said sarcastically. Jarod suspected Sidney and Vaughn had Mr. Parker, and were probably interrogating him.
'I want you to think about my question while I'm gone.' Irina said.
Jarod stood up.
'Brian and Abigail are not part of this and they never will be. I'm here. I'm willing to do whatever you ask.'
Mallory stood up as well and walked up to Irina.
'We're not staying. We're not doing anything for you, and that little TV presentation, while enlightening, didn't do the trick.'
Irina gave her the barest hint of a smile.
'Your twin sister dying, means nothing to you?'
'First time I'm seeing her lady, so, I don't know what to tell you.'
'Hmmm. Well, actually, your reaction makes me all the more certain that you do belong here. Oh, and Melanie isn't the only one that's going to die.'
Irina turned and walked over to the remote. She pointed it at the TV, turning it on again. She then punched a few buttons and Emily came on the screen. Jarod rushed up to the image, then glared at Irina.
'What is she doing here?!'
'You know, believe it or not, I didn't have to kidnap her. My sister truly failed that poor girl...she's delusional, thinking that she's going to steal my daughter's boyfriend from her...though I told her she had a chance. Anyway, think about your answer, like I said.' Irina said coolly, before turning and walking out of the room. The door locked behind her.
Mallory turned to Jarod.
'Are the kids really in a safe place?'
Jarod tore his eyes away from Emily's image. He nodded.
'They are...but I don't think you'll approve.'
'You don't think I'll approve? As long as they're not here, I'd let them live with devil himself! Where are they?'
Jarod looked around. He could see no bugs or listening devices, still, one could never be sure. That and he wasn't up to the confrontation that was due to ensue, once his wife heard that Major Charles and Catherine Parker, had their children.
He put a finger to his lips, and Mallory nodded, mentally kicking herself for being so stupid! If Jarod had blurted it out right now, Irina Derevko and the Centre would have their children to experiment on.
'I'm sorry about Melanie.' he said to her. Mallory gave him a blank look.
'It's okay to feel something, you know.'
'Jarod, don't look at me with that...that look!'
'What look?'
'The one you always give people that you feel sorry for! I didn't know her, so there's nothing to feel! And I'm more upset with myself for getting us in this situation! I should've never went to visit Brigitte! Tell me what's happened since then?'
Jarod reached for the remote control and picking clicking the channels. Sydney's cell was the next one that came on. Mallory gasped!
'Sydney is here too?! God! Michelle and Nicholas must be beside themselves!'
Jarod was struck at the power of that memory drug. Mallory really didn't seem to have any recollection that not only had she been on a plane with Sydney, just hours ago, but that in all likelihood, Sydney told her about Michelle's death already.
Jarod turned off the TV and faced her. He put his hands on her shoulders.
'Honey, Michelle is dead. Lyle killed her and kidnapped Sydney, just like they did you. They want the Centre back, with the old crew and some new blood...our children. We will find a way out of here.'
Mallory smiled at him, reaching up and smoothing down some of his hair.
'I know we will. But we can't let anyone else we care about die.' he said. 'You know, Melanie was very brave. She wanted to help us. I think she felt an instant connection to our family.'
'Jarod, I don't really want to talk about her now...'
'Fine. But you are going to have to face the loss of your sister. You can't just hide away your feelings...that's not what our family is about anymore. That's not what we're about anymore.'
Mallory nodded and Jarod moved in to kiss her. He was still holding onto the remote as he pulled her into his arms. It came on again and something made Mallory open her eyes. She then broke off the kiss!
'Jarod! Look!'
Melanie's cell was onscreen and they both watched as she got up from the ground of her cell. The door was locked again and she looked around, fearful. She didn't appear to have a mark on her.
'What the hell is this?' Mallory asked.
Jarod was confused as well.
'I guess the whole thing was a show.'
'Why?'
'Maybe they think Melanie might be more valuable alive than dead?' Jarod reasoned.
'Yes, but Derevko isn't that type of operative. She leads by example. I mean if Melanie isn't dead, then what about the CIA agents?'
Jarod began fumbling with the remote until he found the room the agents had been in. It was now empty! He looked at Mallory, who came closer to the TV.
'Why would Irina Derevko show us fake shootings and fake dead people?' Mallory asked.
Jarod turned from her back to the screen. He then looked at his wife again.
'None of this is what it's supposed to be....I don't think SHE really wants what the Centre wants.'
Mallory shrugged.
'It wouldn't be the first time Derevko claimed to be a Centre team player when she really had another agenda. She mentioned some sort if virus...what is that all about?'
But Jarod began looking around the room. He then looked up towards the ceiling and saw some wiring hanging out of a corner.
'There's a camera in here too. Probably one with sound.' he said quietly. Mallory eyed her husband.
'Okay, Jarod, I was never as quick as you. What are you trying to say? I can tell by your face that you've figured something out.'
'I think my dear aunt was giving a performance, with someone's help. I thing my aunt could be on the side of good after all.'
'Yeah, honey, that's kind of a big leap in logic. She's up and married my father...where is Brigitte? Do you know? Where is Bobby?'
Jarod eyed her, now concerned about the effect that damned mind erasing drug was having on Mallory.
'Honey, when you were given that drug again, you reverted back to who you were before. You thought you were hunting me. You didn't remember what we had or the family that we built. You called me, on your cell phone and told me that Irina killed Brigitte.'
Mallory's eyes widened!
'Oh my God! Why? Why would my father do this? Doesn't he care....no of course he wouldn't. I saw what he really was on those DSA's.' she said, rubbing her face tiredly. Jarod took her in his arms and kissed the side of her head.
'I would be willing to bet that Brigitte isn't dead either.' he whispered. Mallory pulled away from him.
'Then why? Why? Why has this whole thing been done? My father didn't give me that drug for no reason!'
'No, I think your father, Lyle and Raines were dead serious. Otherwise Lyle wouldn't have been broken out of prison. I think Irina Derevko is, or has, already pulled a double cross.'
'But she had to have had help? Oh God, Jarod! If anyone can hear us then we've given away the woman's plan!'
'I think that's what she was counting on.' Jarod answered, turning back to the TV. He clicked the channels and found that Emily, Melanie and Sidney's cells were empty. Mallory's mouth dropped open!
'Jarod, our holiday has been ruined here by someone's sick game! We need to get out of here and find Sidney and Vaughn! I thought Sidney said they were watching this place?!'
But Jarod's fists began to clench and unclench! If none of those agents were dead, and neither was Melanie, and now suddenly Sydney and Emily's cells were empty....then chances were that Brigitte wasn't dead...and maybe, just maybe, Michelle wasn't dead either!
Then that meant one other thing: that there had been NO need for him to turn Brian and Abigail over to his father and Catherine Parker, the two people that seemed to have clearly gained the one thing they had longed for: custody of their grandchildren!
'Damnit!' Jarod cursed. Mallory eyed him nervously.
'Jarod? Jarod what is it?'
'We have to get out of here! I'm willing to bet that that damned door isn't even locked!' he hissed, grabbing her hand and pulling her along, as he whipped open the door. The two of them hurried down a hallway. The place appeared to be totally empty, as they ran down hallway after hallway!
Jarod's mind was spinning! How complicit had everyone been in this scam?! Or had Sydney, Michelle, Nicholas, Emily, Melanie, even his cousin Sidney, Vaughn, had they all been in this together?!
Mallory, for her part, sensed a simmering rage in Jarod, that she didn't think she had ever seen before, not even when she was chasing him all of these years! She herself, just wanted to get back home to Brian and Abigail, and never let them go again. The rest, Mallory would think about later.
Vaughn picked up a computer and threw it across the room! Sidney was pacing furiously!
The pair could not believe how they had been kept out of the loop on this one!
And Mr. Parker wasn't too thrilled either! That goddamned Derevko woman had been working for the CIA the whole time!
'You cut a deal with my mother?! Did my father know?' Sidney asked, seething.
Marcus Dixon, head of their CIA division, and her and Vaughn's superior, looked at them both calmly.
'No.' was all he said.
Vaughn squinted at him.
'You don't seem to be getting what we're saying here! This trick that you pulled to bring down the Centre, once and for all, may have cost Jarod and Mallory their children!'
'We have agents watching Major Charles and Catherine Parker. And let me just say something, I really don't appreciate putting agents on such a trivial matter. The two of them are hardly enemies of the state. They're just grandparents that want to spend a little time with their grandchildren. This is a family dispute that we really should be staying out of.'
'I disagree!' Mr. Parker barked. Dixon glared over at him.
'Nobody asked you anything!'
But Mr. Parker figured he had nothing to lose now! Once he was brought back to this secret CIA location, and told all he knew, he realized he was off to prison somewhere. Brigitte, not being dead after all, would take their son and disappear to parts unknown. Lyle, God knows where the hell he would be sent, or Raines for that matter. But he did know one thing: if things had to be this way, then he wanted his Angel to raise her own children! Catherine didn't deserve grandchildren after the way she had run off and lied to him about Melanie!
'The woman can't be trusted! I wouldn't be surprised if that skin disease of hers was fake as well! I'd get after her if I were you!'
Vaughn, Sidney and Dixon knew the old man was just trying to cause trouble, but it just brought out all of Sidney's doubts about Catherine Parker and Major Charles's motives where Brian and Abigail were concerned. Something was not right with those two, and at this point, Sidney didn't know if they would ever find out what the truth really was!
'Jarod's my cousin. I should've known about this.' Sidney repeated.
'Why? So you could warn him?'
'You know me better than that! I am a total professional.'
Dixon rubbed the side of his face tiredly.
'I know that. I know that about you both! But, it was decided that the two of you were too close to the situation. And Major Charles and Catherine Parker would've never even factored into this, if Mallory Russell's twin sister had not been kidnapped. That we didn't anticipate. But Irina warned us step by step, what would eventually be happening with the Russell's.'
'So,' Vaughn asked sarcastically, 'did she also warn you that that damned drug could've killed Mallory Russell?'
Dixon rolled his tongue around in his mouth.
'We couldn't let another Centre start up again, okay? She would've been collateral damage.'
'Nice!' Vaughn snapped. Mr. Parker glared at Dixon as well.
'You people worked with us many a time over the years. I have no doubt that some of Jarod's ideas were used on some of your agents' missions.'
Dixon's phone rang, sparing him from having to answer the loathsome old man.
'Dixon.' he said, then moved away from Vaughn and Sidney. Vaughn walked up to Sidney.
'It will be alright. Maybe in the end, Jarod and Mallory will be just glad that they have nothing to fear anymore.'
'We could've handled this without them. And I'm not buying my mother's sudden change of heart! Something else is going on here!'
Dixon hung up the phone and turned back to them.
'We've raided the building. Everyone is okay. Everyone will be reunited here, in just a little over a half an hour.'
'And Jarod and Mallory? Is Mallory okay?' Sidney asked.
'Yes. Your mother came through in every possible way. Lyle, Raines, the Sweepers, they were nabbed by the very agents they thought they had killed. Irina helped everyone that needed to be dead, look dead. Jarod and Mallory were found in the basement part of the Centre...Melanie, Sydney...his wife...everyone will be fine.'
Sidney shook her head with disgust.
'And my mother?'
'Your mother is now a free woman, Sidney. I'm sorry if that doesn't sit well with you, but it was for the greater good.'
Irina Derevko slipped into the woods as the agents began swarming the Centre. She hid behind a tree, as Jarod and Mallory were lead out by agents.
Irina then began walking. She walked for about fifteen minutes, until she found the man she was supposed to be meeting, standing next to the assigned tree.
Arvin Sloane was peering through a pair of binoculars at the Centre scene. He lowered the binoculars.
'Are we even?' she asked, eyeing him.
'We are. Thank you for your part.'
'I did nothing, Arvin. I had no way of knowing that Jarod would send his children to Major Charles and Catherine Parker.'
'But I did. Because I know him so well. I've given them money...soon, they will disappear with the children. Their grandkids will replace the children that they were not allowed to raise.'
Irina eyed him.
'All of this because Mallory Russell tried to poison you?' she asked. She had helped him fake his own death, all of those years ago.
'No.' was all he said. His eyes became hard. Irina realized he wasn't going to tell her anymore, and she turned and began walking back towards the Centre. While Mr. Parker, Raines and Lyle had wanted the children, it was Irina that really pushed it and threatened Jarod...all at Arvin Sloane's insistence.
She was curious about something else: although Irina had helped most everyone fake their own deaths, Brigitte was really dead. When the CIA realized that, Irina would have to either explain why she was really dead, or go on the run again. But Sloane had insisted on her death.
But what she did not know, was that Sloane's reasons went far beyond some rejection on Mallory's part. He had never cared for her that much anyway. As a matter of fact, it had been his intention to murder her shortly after the ceremony, if the marriage had ever come to pass.
Then, Sloane would've hunted down Jarod himself and killed him as well. After all, it was Jarod that had pushed his son, Thomas, into that ill-fated relationship with that Parker woman! And it was Brigitte that had murdered him. Tommy, the son that his late wife Emily had thought had died during childbirth, but that he himself had given away, for the child's own safety....
Now, Jarod and Mallory Russell could go through the pain of not having their children with them, as well. They could go through the pain of having their children raised by someone else. Sloane had used their deepest fears against them...the Centre taking their children and used it to take their children anyway. It was better than killing them, Sloane thought.