Chap.21- Help
Sydney sighed as she turned off and then turned on the television for the fifth time since she had gotten home. Her mind wandered back to the conversation with Ana and her not-so-sly implication that she knew that there was still something between Sydney and Vaughn. She sighed loudly again, thinking about the last thing Ana had said to her before driving off in her own battered car.
"You know, Sydney...for spies, you two aren't very slick at all...are you?"
Sydney had sat in the parking lot, open-mouthed for ten minutes, her mind trying to process fully the full meaning of Ana's statement. The whole way home, she had wondered if Ana was the only one who had made this observation or if the whole office was still gossiping about herself and Vaughn, despite the months that had passed.
"Sydney!" Scott called from the garage. She whirled around from her position on the couch to stare at the garage door and then at the clock hanging from the wall above the television. It was only two o'clock in the afternoon. "Come help!" He called again when she didn't answer him.
"Oh...okay..." Sydney called back and got up from the couch. Opening the door, she saw Scott trying to open the door while juggling a large bouquet of red roses and carton after carton of take-out. "Scott? What's all this?"
Scott looked at her, surprised, but then walked past her to put everything on the kitchen table. He gave her the bouquet with its crackling plastic outer layer and with his arm around her waist, guided her to the calendar, pointing to the date with his finger.
Sydney saw the date and after a moment, a look of registration appeared on her face and she kissed him.
"You remember now?" He asked her, their foreheads leaned against each other.
Sydney nodded, unable to keep a tear of happiness from escaping her eyes.
"It's the day we met...you remembered."
"Of course I remember, Sydney. It was the best day of my life."
Sydney laughed.
"Shouldn't it be the opposite? You know, with me remembering and preparing this huge dinner and then you come home late and forgot, making me all mad at you?"
"Yea, that's how it usually goes." Scott said, nodding in agreement. "But we're not very normal people, are we?"
"No, we're not...come to think of it, it's only two o'clock! How'd you get off work at the hospital? You always tell me that the afternoon is the busiest time in the pediatric wing."
"Oh...I just got somebody to cover for me."
"How nice of them..."
"Well, let's just say that she owes me a very big favor."
336 hours had passed. Sydney, Vaughn, Ana, James, and Mark had been to countless meetings, countless debriefs, countless bomb disengagement reviews, countless nuclear disengagement reviews, and if they were each given ten dollars for every time a mandatory appointment with Gerard showed up on their schedules, they would each be able to buy an hour's worth of psychiatric help to undo everything that Gerard had "fixed".
"Excuse my interruption, Mr. Vaughn, but your presence is requested in the conference room in ten minutes."
"Thank you."
The secretary nodded and headed off in the other direction of the office building to inform the other agents.
Ten minutes later, Kendall and Jack were already in the conference room, waiting for the five agents to join them. When they had all arrived and were seated, Kendall passed each agent a leather bound folder. Each folder contained passports, birth certificates, social security numbers, driver's licenses, and plane tickets, all under new aliases.
"The plan is as we had discussed the previous times. Again, you are to leave straight for the location of the nuke once you have attained it. Any questions?" Kendall asked. Their silence answered his question. "Marshall."
"Ok, well I kind of had to use my brain...a lot harder on this one because, well...we don't exactly know what kind of nuke it's going to be, right? Am I right?" Marshall asked, looking around. The five agents smiled and nodded in agreement. "Ok, so what I've devised is actually a pretty nifty looking thing. It looks like a regular palm pilot," Marshall said, pointing to his newest creation. "But...it's not. I actually got this idea from this thing were you can search an inventory of alcoholic drinks and see what their ingredients are and their measurements and everything....but I don't drink....it gives me hives and apparently I can get REALLY wasted on like, one shot, which is pretty sad if you ask me..."
"Marshall...continue, please."
"Sorry...but anyways, as I was saying you actually just point the camera that is located on the back of this contraption to the nuke and take a picture. Once it takes the picture, it will scan through the inventory of all the nukes that the CIA has encountered that I've downloaded onto its memory chip in less than 10 seconds. Yes, I know...amazing. After it has made a match, complete, and detailed instructions will appear on the screen telling you what screws to unscrew, what wires to cut...anything and everything. It's all here."
"Wow..." James said, whistling and leaning back into his chair.
"I know." Marshall said and sat back down in his chair.
Jack looked around the room.
"Any questions?" He asked. Their silence answered him.
"Good. You leave in three hours." Kendall said, getting up from his chair and leaving the conference room with Marshall close behind him, trying to keep up in order to ask for Kendall's approval for future projects and creations while trying to keep the wires that were hanging out of his briefcase from tangling up more than they already were.
The five of them started to file out of the room and when they were out into the open hall, Jack called Sydney to him, leading her into his office and shutting the door behind her.
"What's wrong?" Sydney asked, seeing Jack's nervous face. Her heart skipped a beat, wondering what might have happened to make him react like this. She then sighed with relief when his face broke into a wide grin, but then became confused again, trying to think back to a time when he was this happy.
"Nothing's wrong, honey. I know."
"Know...what?"
"That you're pregnant."
Sydney looked at him in shock.
"Dad...how did you find out?"
"Scott told me."
"What?"
"Yea...he called me and told me. He said that you wanted to tell me yourself, but you were busy doing something."
"When?"
"Last night...around ten?"
"I was asleep. I had no idea that he called you."
"It doesn't matter how I found out, Sydney. What matters is that I know now and I'm pulling you off this mission."
"There's nobody else."
"I've already found a replacement, a transfer who's just ended her term in Italy. I've already had her documents made..."
"No! I want to do this!"
"Sydney, it's not safe."
"It never was safe, Dad. It never will be. You know that."
"I have two of you to protect now. It's not just about yourself anymore, Sydney."
Sydney looked at her father pleadingly.
"Dad...you don't know how much I appreciate everything that you've done for over these past years. Langley, Vaughn, Sloane ...Mom. But I need you to let me do this. I know Robespierre's style. I know his people."
"Sydney..."
"It's probably going to be my last mission this year...maybe forever....I need to do this right. I need to do this myself. Will you let me have that?"
Jack nodded.
"Okay...but I'm on the other end of that comm. link."
Sydney sighed as she turned off and then turned on the television for the fifth time since she had gotten home. Her mind wandered back to the conversation with Ana and her not-so-sly implication that she knew that there was still something between Sydney and Vaughn. She sighed loudly again, thinking about the last thing Ana had said to her before driving off in her own battered car.
"You know, Sydney...for spies, you two aren't very slick at all...are you?"
Sydney had sat in the parking lot, open-mouthed for ten minutes, her mind trying to process fully the full meaning of Ana's statement. The whole way home, she had wondered if Ana was the only one who had made this observation or if the whole office was still gossiping about herself and Vaughn, despite the months that had passed.
"Sydney!" Scott called from the garage. She whirled around from her position on the couch to stare at the garage door and then at the clock hanging from the wall above the television. It was only two o'clock in the afternoon. "Come help!" He called again when she didn't answer him.
"Oh...okay..." Sydney called back and got up from the couch. Opening the door, she saw Scott trying to open the door while juggling a large bouquet of red roses and carton after carton of take-out. "Scott? What's all this?"
Scott looked at her, surprised, but then walked past her to put everything on the kitchen table. He gave her the bouquet with its crackling plastic outer layer and with his arm around her waist, guided her to the calendar, pointing to the date with his finger.
Sydney saw the date and after a moment, a look of registration appeared on her face and she kissed him.
"You remember now?" He asked her, their foreheads leaned against each other.
Sydney nodded, unable to keep a tear of happiness from escaping her eyes.
"It's the day we met...you remembered."
"Of course I remember, Sydney. It was the best day of my life."
Sydney laughed.
"Shouldn't it be the opposite? You know, with me remembering and preparing this huge dinner and then you come home late and forgot, making me all mad at you?"
"Yea, that's how it usually goes." Scott said, nodding in agreement. "But we're not very normal people, are we?"
"No, we're not...come to think of it, it's only two o'clock! How'd you get off work at the hospital? You always tell me that the afternoon is the busiest time in the pediatric wing."
"Oh...I just got somebody to cover for me."
"How nice of them..."
"Well, let's just say that she owes me a very big favor."
336 hours had passed. Sydney, Vaughn, Ana, James, and Mark had been to countless meetings, countless debriefs, countless bomb disengagement reviews, countless nuclear disengagement reviews, and if they were each given ten dollars for every time a mandatory appointment with Gerard showed up on their schedules, they would each be able to buy an hour's worth of psychiatric help to undo everything that Gerard had "fixed".
"Excuse my interruption, Mr. Vaughn, but your presence is requested in the conference room in ten minutes."
"Thank you."
The secretary nodded and headed off in the other direction of the office building to inform the other agents.
Ten minutes later, Kendall and Jack were already in the conference room, waiting for the five agents to join them. When they had all arrived and were seated, Kendall passed each agent a leather bound folder. Each folder contained passports, birth certificates, social security numbers, driver's licenses, and plane tickets, all under new aliases.
"The plan is as we had discussed the previous times. Again, you are to leave straight for the location of the nuke once you have attained it. Any questions?" Kendall asked. Their silence answered his question. "Marshall."
"Ok, well I kind of had to use my brain...a lot harder on this one because, well...we don't exactly know what kind of nuke it's going to be, right? Am I right?" Marshall asked, looking around. The five agents smiled and nodded in agreement. "Ok, so what I've devised is actually a pretty nifty looking thing. It looks like a regular palm pilot," Marshall said, pointing to his newest creation. "But...it's not. I actually got this idea from this thing were you can search an inventory of alcoholic drinks and see what their ingredients are and their measurements and everything....but I don't drink....it gives me hives and apparently I can get REALLY wasted on like, one shot, which is pretty sad if you ask me..."
"Marshall...continue, please."
"Sorry...but anyways, as I was saying you actually just point the camera that is located on the back of this contraption to the nuke and take a picture. Once it takes the picture, it will scan through the inventory of all the nukes that the CIA has encountered that I've downloaded onto its memory chip in less than 10 seconds. Yes, I know...amazing. After it has made a match, complete, and detailed instructions will appear on the screen telling you what screws to unscrew, what wires to cut...anything and everything. It's all here."
"Wow..." James said, whistling and leaning back into his chair.
"I know." Marshall said and sat back down in his chair.
Jack looked around the room.
"Any questions?" He asked. Their silence answered him.
"Good. You leave in three hours." Kendall said, getting up from his chair and leaving the conference room with Marshall close behind him, trying to keep up in order to ask for Kendall's approval for future projects and creations while trying to keep the wires that were hanging out of his briefcase from tangling up more than they already were.
The five of them started to file out of the room and when they were out into the open hall, Jack called Sydney to him, leading her into his office and shutting the door behind her.
"What's wrong?" Sydney asked, seeing Jack's nervous face. Her heart skipped a beat, wondering what might have happened to make him react like this. She then sighed with relief when his face broke into a wide grin, but then became confused again, trying to think back to a time when he was this happy.
"Nothing's wrong, honey. I know."
"Know...what?"
"That you're pregnant."
Sydney looked at him in shock.
"Dad...how did you find out?"
"Scott told me."
"What?"
"Yea...he called me and told me. He said that you wanted to tell me yourself, but you were busy doing something."
"When?"
"Last night...around ten?"
"I was asleep. I had no idea that he called you."
"It doesn't matter how I found out, Sydney. What matters is that I know now and I'm pulling you off this mission."
"There's nobody else."
"I've already found a replacement, a transfer who's just ended her term in Italy. I've already had her documents made..."
"No! I want to do this!"
"Sydney, it's not safe."
"It never was safe, Dad. It never will be. You know that."
"I have two of you to protect now. It's not just about yourself anymore, Sydney."
Sydney looked at her father pleadingly.
"Dad...you don't know how much I appreciate everything that you've done for over these past years. Langley, Vaughn, Sloane ...Mom. But I need you to let me do this. I know Robespierre's style. I know his people."
"Sydney..."
"It's probably going to be my last mission this year...maybe forever....I need to do this right. I need to do this myself. Will you let me have that?"
Jack nodded.
"Okay...but I'm on the other end of that comm. link."