Chap. 34- Nightmares
A month of life stealthily slipped away from the grappling fingers of those craving and yearning for time. Sydney was not one of those people. She rather enjoyed watching the days fly by. The days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and she knew that eventually, months turned to years.
The faster that time flew by, the less time she had to think about her dead child and how she had failed to avenge its murder. She, Sydney Bristow Voyer, could not catch the person responsible. She, who people consider to be one of the most prestigious clandestine agents in the Agency.
--
The windows were flung open, in a desperate yet futile attempt to replace the stuffy air inside the house with even the slightest breeze. The fan generated a small stream of air that Scott directed at Sydney. She smiled and in the contrasting mix of temperatures, she fell into a light sleep.
In the dead of night, Sydney gasped loudly as she woke up from one of her recurring nightmares. Sitting up in bed and taking deep breaths, she began to calm down when she became reassured that it was only a dream.
Suddenly, she frowned and a minute detail that she and her father had overlooked came to her. Quickly, with a bit of difficulty, she untangled herself from the tangle of sheets that had been kicked aside.
"Sydney?" Scott murmured groggily from the bed. "It's two in the morning. Where are you going?"
"I have to go into work."
"Now?"
"Yeah, but don't worry. I'll be back really soon."
Sydney froze until she heard his head flop back onto the pillow. She padded into the dressing room and pulled on a simple suit while running a brush through her hair. In the car, she extracted her phone from her purse and dialed her father's number.
"Hello?" Jack asked, his voice sounding as awake as he would in the middle of the day.
"Dad, it's me."
"What's wrong?" He asked immediately.
"Nothing." Sydney assured him. "I have a hunch, but it's too hard for me to explain over the phone. I'm heading to your place right now."
"Okay. I'll see you soon."
--
Jack handed Sydney a cup of coffee and sat across from her in the living room. She accepted it gratefully, sipping at it gingerly and finally setting it on the coffee table in front of her.
"It's safe to talk in here." Jack said, indicating her to start talking.
"We both have been after this person for two months now, and we've been getting nowhere. I was sleeping and I woke up from one of my nightmares and I realized that we've been searching for this person as 'the gentleman'. When I went back to look at the cards that he left me, it's signed 'a gentleman'," Sydney explained.
"Are you saying that we've completely gone about this in the wrong way?"
"Maybe not," she answered. "Maybe we're just looking at this from the wrong perspective."
"What do you mean?"
"We're looking at this like it's someone from outside penetrating in."
"It could be someone that works in the Agency." Jack concluded, nodding in agreement. "It could be someone from inside. It's possible."
"I don't know if you noticed this, but..." Sydney trailed off, digging in a purse for a pen and paper. She wrote something on it and handed it to Jack.
He shook his head.
"We looked right past this. It was right here, always was. We looked right past the simplest technique and jumped to the complicated ones. It also explains how it got past security."
"What?"
"I saw the tapes. Scott sent you flowers that day and if I recall correctly, they were butchered in security. The second set of flowers that you received though, were perfectly fine."
"That's right."
"Put on your coat, we're heading to the Ops center now."
--
The father and daughter pair strode into the Ops center at three in the morning. Jack ushered Sydney into the main computer room and calling in another agent.
"Agent Cabot, this is Agent Sydney Voyer. Sydney, Agent Cabot." Jack introduced and continued. "Agent Cabot has been helping me in this operation. He's field rated, but mostly works in Analysis and is a software specialist. Recently, he's developed a program for the Agency which allows access to the complete database of employees."
"Hi." Cabot greeted.
"Hi." Sydney smiled. She quickly explained to him what she and Jack had concluded before and Cabot nodded.
"That makes perfect sense. What I don't understand is why you need me."
"We need your access to the database." Jack said. "It hasn't been approved yet, but we need it now."
"Okay. Well, you've concluded that this person is an agent in the Agency, but that's not good enough. I need a name, maybe even a writing sample if things get too messy."
"I have a writing sample." Sydney offered, handing him one of the cards. "The name...we're not too sure of the name, but it's a hunch."
"Well, anything would be good to start off on."
Jack extracted the paper that Sydney had written on from his coat pocket and handed it to Cabot who expressed the same disbelief that Jack had.
"It's good. Very possible. I see it now. We've been searching for 'the gentleman' when we really want 'a gentleman'. You just shift the space and you get 'Agent Leman'. That's so brilliant it's kind of stupid. Brilliant because it's so...simple; stupid because well, I mean, it's right there. It won't take long for someone to eventually figure it out." Cabot ranted in frustration. He took a deep breath.
"Will you be able to start off of that?"
"Yes, of course. I have a name. It'll take a while, of course." Cabot answered, his fingers already nimbly recalling his program from the hard drive. A few minutes later, he entered his search and scanned the writing sample into the computer.
Sydney looked on as the green progress bar slowly inched by on the monitor.
"How long do you think it will take?" Sydney asked.
"Well, there are a lot of employees in this country as well as those who are overseas. You also have your dealers, your manufacturers, etc. etc. Anybody who is associated with the CIA and actually, any United States federal agency is on this software program. It's useless to type in 'Agent Leman' so 'Leman' is the only way. Therefore, it will go through all those unnecessary files."
"Is that just a glorified version of saying that it's going to take a long time?"
"Check back at the end of the day. It'll probably be done by the time you're getting ready to leave."
"I thought you said that it would take a long time."
Cabot laughed.
"Twelve hours is a long time. By CIA standards it is, anyway."
Jack turned the monitor of the computer off and taped a 'Down for Repairs (do not turn off)' sign on the screen.
"What happens when they bring somebody in to fix it?" Sydney asked.
"Don't worry about that." Jack answered. "They'll bring Cabot in."
--
Fourteen hours later, Jack, Sydney, and Cabot gathered in a deserted and locked computer room. Jack pulled to sign off the screen and turned on the monitor while Cabot situated himself in the chair with Sydney standing behind him.
The blue progress bar had finished and Cabot hit the 'show results' button eagerly wondering if his software program was a success. He scrolled down the screen and finally announced that they had 243 results.
"Not bad." He murmured to himself. Applying the writing sample, the computer then automatically eliminated the results down to ten people.
"Three of these are postal workers." Jack pointed out and they were deleted.
"Now, if the person is an agent, they have to be field rated." Sydney stated.
"Or, it could just be misleading."
"Can we assume that it's a man?" Cabot asked.
"No."
"Just out of curiosity..." Sydney started. "Agent Cabot, can you please delete all the women and those who are not field rated?"
Cabot nodded and the list was narrowed down to two.
"Click on the first one." Jack suggested.
A screen appeared for Agent Jonathan M. Leman, a 78 year-old grandfather of four who is now residing in Boca Raton, Florida.
"He's retired." Sydney said. "It's not him."
"Want to give the second one a go?" Cabot asked.
"Why not?" Sydney asked tiredly.
Cabot clicked on the second and a screen appeared for an Agent Peter Leman. Cabot compared the handwriting on his exam to the one on the card, pulling out letters of the alphabet from each and laying them on top of each other.
"It's a match." Jack said. "Are there any details provided?"
"No." Cabot answered. "That's odd."
"Why?" Sydney asked.
"Every single employee has a full background check, psychoanalysis test performed, and exam given. This program is supposed to have all of that, including the resume."
"It's him." Sydney said, looking at the picture. "I've seen him around before. I've seen him in the office. I've seen him on missions sometimes. It's him."
"Does it have an address?" Jack asked.
"Yes." Cabot replied. "321 Grant Road."
"Thank you. Go home, Sydney." Jack said. "Steven and I are going to go have a chat with Peter." He and Cabot left the computer room.
Sydney sat down into the chair and stared into the face of the man. She hadn't even known what he had looked like until today, but the hatred that she felt was unchanging.
But Sydney still felt the need of human empathy and she knew that the nightmares would still continue to come.
She wouldn't have her father or Agent Cabot to help her there. The person she truly needed was somewhere so close, yet so far away.
They were demons she would face alone.
--
Author's Note: Hello. Yes, it is me. Do you still remember me? You know, Jen, with my story I keep badgering everybody with. Recognition starting to dawn??? Yes??
Ahaha. Yes, that's just me being weird and thinking that it's funny that I haven't written in forever.
It's not funny. Shame on you, Jen.
Aheh.
But anyways, I have finally come out of my hellhole ::coughschoolcough:: although I can't shake the horridness of finales. I know I just failed my math final. =(
If I do, you probably won't be hearing from me soon.
But anyways, yes. That was a chapter. It was so much Sydney, not enough Vaughn. I know, but when can we EVER get ENOUGH of him?
I also felt that it was totally necessary to have a very SYDNEY chapter because, they really haven't been about her lately and some people are saying that she's not grieving enough. Well...she is. Vaughn is talking. I know it's distracting.
You kind of have to imagine that while this chapter is going on, the other characters are doing something. What? I don't know. Use your imagination.
Alright, it's 2 in the morning so I can't really wish you a Merry Christmas anymore. I guess a Happy Holidays! Is in order though.
So.....HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
Thank you sooooo much to everyone that reviewed. Special thanks to those who did out of the blue in the middle of my writing hiatus. They were much needed encouragement!
Jen
A month of life stealthily slipped away from the grappling fingers of those craving and yearning for time. Sydney was not one of those people. She rather enjoyed watching the days fly by. The days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and she knew that eventually, months turned to years.
The faster that time flew by, the less time she had to think about her dead child and how she had failed to avenge its murder. She, Sydney Bristow Voyer, could not catch the person responsible. She, who people consider to be one of the most prestigious clandestine agents in the Agency.
--
The windows were flung open, in a desperate yet futile attempt to replace the stuffy air inside the house with even the slightest breeze. The fan generated a small stream of air that Scott directed at Sydney. She smiled and in the contrasting mix of temperatures, she fell into a light sleep.
In the dead of night, Sydney gasped loudly as she woke up from one of her recurring nightmares. Sitting up in bed and taking deep breaths, she began to calm down when she became reassured that it was only a dream.
Suddenly, she frowned and a minute detail that she and her father had overlooked came to her. Quickly, with a bit of difficulty, she untangled herself from the tangle of sheets that had been kicked aside.
"Sydney?" Scott murmured groggily from the bed. "It's two in the morning. Where are you going?"
"I have to go into work."
"Now?"
"Yeah, but don't worry. I'll be back really soon."
Sydney froze until she heard his head flop back onto the pillow. She padded into the dressing room and pulled on a simple suit while running a brush through her hair. In the car, she extracted her phone from her purse and dialed her father's number.
"Hello?" Jack asked, his voice sounding as awake as he would in the middle of the day.
"Dad, it's me."
"What's wrong?" He asked immediately.
"Nothing." Sydney assured him. "I have a hunch, but it's too hard for me to explain over the phone. I'm heading to your place right now."
"Okay. I'll see you soon."
--
Jack handed Sydney a cup of coffee and sat across from her in the living room. She accepted it gratefully, sipping at it gingerly and finally setting it on the coffee table in front of her.
"It's safe to talk in here." Jack said, indicating her to start talking.
"We both have been after this person for two months now, and we've been getting nowhere. I was sleeping and I woke up from one of my nightmares and I realized that we've been searching for this person as 'the gentleman'. When I went back to look at the cards that he left me, it's signed 'a gentleman'," Sydney explained.
"Are you saying that we've completely gone about this in the wrong way?"
"Maybe not," she answered. "Maybe we're just looking at this from the wrong perspective."
"What do you mean?"
"We're looking at this like it's someone from outside penetrating in."
"It could be someone that works in the Agency." Jack concluded, nodding in agreement. "It could be someone from inside. It's possible."
"I don't know if you noticed this, but..." Sydney trailed off, digging in a purse for a pen and paper. She wrote something on it and handed it to Jack.
He shook his head.
"We looked right past this. It was right here, always was. We looked right past the simplest technique and jumped to the complicated ones. It also explains how it got past security."
"What?"
"I saw the tapes. Scott sent you flowers that day and if I recall correctly, they were butchered in security. The second set of flowers that you received though, were perfectly fine."
"That's right."
"Put on your coat, we're heading to the Ops center now."
--
The father and daughter pair strode into the Ops center at three in the morning. Jack ushered Sydney into the main computer room and calling in another agent.
"Agent Cabot, this is Agent Sydney Voyer. Sydney, Agent Cabot." Jack introduced and continued. "Agent Cabot has been helping me in this operation. He's field rated, but mostly works in Analysis and is a software specialist. Recently, he's developed a program for the Agency which allows access to the complete database of employees."
"Hi." Cabot greeted.
"Hi." Sydney smiled. She quickly explained to him what she and Jack had concluded before and Cabot nodded.
"That makes perfect sense. What I don't understand is why you need me."
"We need your access to the database." Jack said. "It hasn't been approved yet, but we need it now."
"Okay. Well, you've concluded that this person is an agent in the Agency, but that's not good enough. I need a name, maybe even a writing sample if things get too messy."
"I have a writing sample." Sydney offered, handing him one of the cards. "The name...we're not too sure of the name, but it's a hunch."
"Well, anything would be good to start off on."
Jack extracted the paper that Sydney had written on from his coat pocket and handed it to Cabot who expressed the same disbelief that Jack had.
"It's good. Very possible. I see it now. We've been searching for 'the gentleman' when we really want 'a gentleman'. You just shift the space and you get 'Agent Leman'. That's so brilliant it's kind of stupid. Brilliant because it's so...simple; stupid because well, I mean, it's right there. It won't take long for someone to eventually figure it out." Cabot ranted in frustration. He took a deep breath.
"Will you be able to start off of that?"
"Yes, of course. I have a name. It'll take a while, of course." Cabot answered, his fingers already nimbly recalling his program from the hard drive. A few minutes later, he entered his search and scanned the writing sample into the computer.
Sydney looked on as the green progress bar slowly inched by on the monitor.
"How long do you think it will take?" Sydney asked.
"Well, there are a lot of employees in this country as well as those who are overseas. You also have your dealers, your manufacturers, etc. etc. Anybody who is associated with the CIA and actually, any United States federal agency is on this software program. It's useless to type in 'Agent Leman' so 'Leman' is the only way. Therefore, it will go through all those unnecessary files."
"Is that just a glorified version of saying that it's going to take a long time?"
"Check back at the end of the day. It'll probably be done by the time you're getting ready to leave."
"I thought you said that it would take a long time."
Cabot laughed.
"Twelve hours is a long time. By CIA standards it is, anyway."
Jack turned the monitor of the computer off and taped a 'Down for Repairs (do not turn off)' sign on the screen.
"What happens when they bring somebody in to fix it?" Sydney asked.
"Don't worry about that." Jack answered. "They'll bring Cabot in."
--
Fourteen hours later, Jack, Sydney, and Cabot gathered in a deserted and locked computer room. Jack pulled to sign off the screen and turned on the monitor while Cabot situated himself in the chair with Sydney standing behind him.
The blue progress bar had finished and Cabot hit the 'show results' button eagerly wondering if his software program was a success. He scrolled down the screen and finally announced that they had 243 results.
"Not bad." He murmured to himself. Applying the writing sample, the computer then automatically eliminated the results down to ten people.
"Three of these are postal workers." Jack pointed out and they were deleted.
"Now, if the person is an agent, they have to be field rated." Sydney stated.
"Or, it could just be misleading."
"Can we assume that it's a man?" Cabot asked.
"No."
"Just out of curiosity..." Sydney started. "Agent Cabot, can you please delete all the women and those who are not field rated?"
Cabot nodded and the list was narrowed down to two.
"Click on the first one." Jack suggested.
A screen appeared for Agent Jonathan M. Leman, a 78 year-old grandfather of four who is now residing in Boca Raton, Florida.
"He's retired." Sydney said. "It's not him."
"Want to give the second one a go?" Cabot asked.
"Why not?" Sydney asked tiredly.
Cabot clicked on the second and a screen appeared for an Agent Peter Leman. Cabot compared the handwriting on his exam to the one on the card, pulling out letters of the alphabet from each and laying them on top of each other.
"It's a match." Jack said. "Are there any details provided?"
"No." Cabot answered. "That's odd."
"Why?" Sydney asked.
"Every single employee has a full background check, psychoanalysis test performed, and exam given. This program is supposed to have all of that, including the resume."
"It's him." Sydney said, looking at the picture. "I've seen him around before. I've seen him in the office. I've seen him on missions sometimes. It's him."
"Does it have an address?" Jack asked.
"Yes." Cabot replied. "321 Grant Road."
"Thank you. Go home, Sydney." Jack said. "Steven and I are going to go have a chat with Peter." He and Cabot left the computer room.
Sydney sat down into the chair and stared into the face of the man. She hadn't even known what he had looked like until today, but the hatred that she felt was unchanging.
But Sydney still felt the need of human empathy and she knew that the nightmares would still continue to come.
She wouldn't have her father or Agent Cabot to help her there. The person she truly needed was somewhere so close, yet so far away.
They were demons she would face alone.
--
Author's Note: Hello. Yes, it is me. Do you still remember me? You know, Jen, with my story I keep badgering everybody with. Recognition starting to dawn??? Yes??
Ahaha. Yes, that's just me being weird and thinking that it's funny that I haven't written in forever.
It's not funny. Shame on you, Jen.
Aheh.
But anyways, I have finally come out of my hellhole ::coughschoolcough:: although I can't shake the horridness of finales. I know I just failed my math final. =(
If I do, you probably won't be hearing from me soon.
But anyways, yes. That was a chapter. It was so much Sydney, not enough Vaughn. I know, but when can we EVER get ENOUGH of him?
I also felt that it was totally necessary to have a very SYDNEY chapter because, they really haven't been about her lately and some people are saying that she's not grieving enough. Well...she is. Vaughn is talking. I know it's distracting.
You kind of have to imagine that while this chapter is going on, the other characters are doing something. What? I don't know. Use your imagination.
Alright, it's 2 in the morning so I can't really wish you a Merry Christmas anymore. I guess a Happy Holidays! Is in order though.
So.....HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
Thank you sooooo much to everyone that reviewed. Special thanks to those who did out of the blue in the middle of my writing hiatus. They were much needed encouragement!
Jen