Thanks to those who reviewed, sorry it's been awhile since my last update but I've been very busy. The story so far for those who don't remember (like me!):
Vaughn died due to the virus from the Rambaldi ball.
Sydney has a new handler – Paul Gibbs who is cold and uncaring.
She goes on a mission to Vancouver to retrieve the hourglass software, and Gibbs saves her from stuffing it up.
Sydney drowns her sorrows and "flashback" to all sydney/vaughn moments. Though she found vaughn alive in egypt but was only dreaming.
Gibbs makes a mysterious phone call.
Blood ties
By the time Sydney left SD-6, after getting her next assignment, it was mid-afternoon on a cloudy day. Sydney entered the busy Rotunda, by the usual scenic route and the first thing that caught her attention was the surveillance monitor, showing Agent Gibbs talking to her mother. Even though there was no audio, it was clear that it was a two-way conversation.
For some reason this made her despise him even more than she already did. It wasn't like her mother only talked to her; she had talked with Vaughn, Jack and Kendall. Nevertheless, Sydney felt that Gibbs was robbing her of something that only she had the right to do. As much as Sydney tried to tell herself that their meetings were just a way for her to get intel, in truth, her father had been right, it was also a way for Sydney to gain a mother and daughter bond that she had always wanted when she was growing up.
"Sydney," said Jack, walking over to join her.
"I know," he said, glancing at the monitor, and silently took her aside so that they could talk privately.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm holding up" she replied with a sigh. "but I want someone else, I don't care, anyone else would be better than him."
"Unless there's reason to replace him, Kendall won't do it."
"There's got to be something, because I can't stand him. He's rude, arrogant..."
"I know, that's why I went and pulled his file."
"Did you find anything?"
"No, nothing. For some reason they're classified, even I can't access them,"
"This was unusual," thought Sydney, she had never known father to come up empty handed before.
But Jack continued, "However, I did find something from his computer log and phone records. Over the last few months he has downloaded at odd hours, large amounts of medical information from the CIA international database. And most of the calls that he's made in the last few weeks have been to one number."
"Do we know who it belongs to?"
"Not yet, I'm still getting it traced, but what's interesting is that the only call he's received in that time frame was from that number two days ago, lasting less than a minute."
"Do you any idea what the medical data was concerning?"
"No, but I don't think it's a co-incident that Gibbs was downloading medical data around the same time that lab experiments were being done on the virus originating from the Rambaldi device."
"What? You think he has something to do with the virus that killed Vaughn?"
"I don't have enough information to come to any conclusions yet, but I'll be keeping a closer watch on him."
..........................................................................................o
"Guard, I'm done," said Gibbs, and the steel bars lifted up, allowing him to leave.
After passing the last security bars, he was met by a not so happy Sydney.
"What did you talk to my mother about?" she asked heatedly.
"Oh, nothing much. I was just asking her what kind of skin cream she used," he smugly replied, further fuelling her irritation.
"What? Botox letting you down?" she quipped back. "Nothing you do will change the fact that you're a pompous, selfish jerk"
Her unexpected harsh words took him by surprise, but ignoring the insult he said, "Devlin's approved for Will to do research if he passes the Milgram-Reich allegiance test. Here's his SOP and money I didn't get to give him last time." As he said this he took out a yellow envelope and handed it to her.
"and for your information, Kendall was busy so I was asked to go over your mother's immunity agreement with her."
"Oh," Sydney said, slightly embarrassed by her outburst, but not enough to regret that she had said it.
..........................................................................................o
It's been almost two weeks ago that she had come to her mother seeking information about an antidote for Vaughn, and the walk down the hallway seems longer this time round. Her mother must have been expecting her, because she stood close to the glass as Sydney walked up.
"I'm so sorry about Vaughn," Irina said sincerely.
"Me too...but you said yourself that there was no guarantee," Sydney said to her feet.
"Sydney, I wish that I could take away all this pain, get you out of this life that takes away all those that you care about and love."
"If you truly mean what you say, then help me bring down Sloane and Sark."
"Sark?"
"Yes, he and Sloane have formed a partnership, and I've been sent to purchase Uzbekistan's ground-force communications codes from a mercenary named Zoran Sokolov.
...............................................................stuff from "The passage 1"
"Absolutely not! I'm not about to release Irina Derevko for 48 hours without just cause," said Kendall, after hearing what Sydney said her mother had requested.
"She won't give a reason why, but so far her intel has been 100 correct. My mother is clearly worried about something else, some unintended consequence that we can't predict," reasoned Sydney.
"The only reason at this moment that I'd let her out would be for her burial. Gibbs? You haven't said anything."
"Well you've made it clear what your decision is already, so my opinion is irrelevant"
"I'd like to hear it anyway."
"It's not like Derevko is going anywhere soon, and letting her go might alert Sloane and Sark, so I think we should act if and when her fears materialise."
"and what if by then it's too late to act?" Sydney challenged, frustrated by the lack of support by all of them.
"Agent Bristow, unless your mother offer us a reason, you are to proceed as planned. Is that clear?" ordered Kendall, and left followed by Jack. Leaving Sydney alone with Gibbs.
"Just dead drop the communication codes you get from Uzbekistan when you get back." Gibbs said quickly and left as well.
"Fine" she said unenthusiastically and turned to go pack for her trip.
But a familiar voice called out, "Hey Syd!"
"Weiss?! I thought you weren't released for another week."
"Yeah, but fish pellets were starting to look tastier than what they were feeding me, so I left" he joked. "Come here," he said and gave her a big bear hug.
"Sorry I couldn't visit..." she started to apologise, but he just waved the apology off as unnecessary.
"I got your plant though, and surprisingly it's still alive."
After a long pause, Weiss broke the silence and said, "I miss him too," and she responded with a slight nod.
Changing the subject he said, "so I spoke to Paulie before and you're going to Uzbekistan?"
"Yeah in two hours. You know Gibbs?"
"Yeah. Me, him and Vaughn use to hang out when we were at the training farm. We were known as the Tripods..."
........................................................................................................o
Standing at his desk Gibbs took out his cell phone and dialled a number, when someone picked up he said, "I've got the money, meet me there in an hour" and hung up. He then logged onto his computer and was immediately alerted that his records had been accessed. Staring at the screen for another second he turned it off, grabbed his jacket and headed for the parking lot.
"Sir, here's the result for the phone traced you requested" said the technician handing Jack the piece of paper. Taking a glance at it, Jack, without a word quickly followed Gibbs as he left.
As Gibbs drove off, Jack tailed him, staying a safe distance back but maintaining a visual on the black sedan.
.......................................................................................................o
"...we lost touch with him after getting field rated, I think he was sent off to Europe."
"are you sure you haven't mixed him up with someone else?" she asked, because the person Weiss had described was the total opposite of Gibbs, and in the week that she had worked with him he had never indicated that he knew Vaughn.
"No that's him, he just needs to pull that cactus out of his butt," joked Weiss, and then added, "did you know that he hacked into the CIA computer network and left his address and phone number so that he could be recruited?"
"Really?"
"Yeah, the guy's like a computer genius, he even helped design the security software before he became a field agent."
"What, you mean the security system we have now?" Sydney asked, as it dawned on her why her father hadn't been able to access Gibbs' file.
"I think so, why?"
"I've got to call my dad," Sydney said pulling out her phone.
.....................................................................................................................o
Jack had been trailing Gibbs for almost half an hour, without any signs that he was nearing his destination. They had left the freeway behind, and were now travelling through an abandoned industrial area, making it harder for Jack to follow him without being detected.
Jack's phone rang, without taking his eyes off the road he answered it.
"Dad, where are you?" Sydney asked.
"I'm following Gibbs, the person he was calling is a surgeon, wanted by the FBI for malpractice, un-...hang on I've lost him..."
"Dad, listen to me. He designed the security system, that's why you couldn't access his files, so he probably knows that you've download his record...dad?" she said frantically, but the line went dead.
..............................................o
Jack could no longer see Gibbs' car, slowing down he looked from side to side but only empty warehouses stared back at him. Jack decided to take a left turn into a lane way in between two of the warehouses. He stopped suddenly, because standing 10 meters away was Gibbs, casually leaning against the back of his car and waiting.
Jack, taking off the safety lock on his pistol, placed it in his cloak pocket and stepped out of the car, closing the door quietly, and then walked calmly towards Gibbs.
"Jack, I see you're packing heat," Gibbs said in a steady voice, eyeing Jack's hand in his cloak pocket.
"What are you doing here?" Jack asked, as they stood face to face.
"I know what I'm doing here, the question is why are you following me?" without letting Jack respond Gibbs went on, "did you know that you can tell more about a man from his garbage can than from his CIA records?"
"Really? I'll keep that in mind next time."
"there's not going to be a next time Jack."
TBC.
Thanks for reading, and I love to get feedback since they're very encouraging and helpful.