Disclaimer: I own nothing! Too bad… All the characters are property of JJ, Bad Robot, etc.

Author's Note: Thanks for the people who reviewed, but if more people don't, I'm not sure if I will keep posting, so please let me know if I should continue!

Chapter 2

There was a stunned silence in the conference room for a moment and then everyone began talking at once.

"What the –"

"How on Earth?"

"That bastard!"

Sloane held up a hand, waiting for everyone to calm down. "Please people, please, I would like to get on with this briefing."

"NO. Sydney said, half standing up and placing both her hands on the table. "I think that given the history that everyone in this room has with Sark, we deserve some explanation of WHY THE HELL HE IS NOT IN CUSTODY."

Sloane, recognizing the determined look on Sydney's face, realized that in the end the briefing would go more quickly if he explained and did not have to deal with Sydney's interruptions that were sure to come if he did not explain the fate of Sark. "OK, I will give you a short explanation. Mr. Sark, as you all know, was apprehended a few months ago and put in CIA custody. He was a rather cooperative prisoner and provided us with much useful intelligence. After it was determined that Mr. Sark could provide the United States with no more useful information, the decision was made to release him. With Ms. Reed and Ms. Derevko dead and the Alliance no longer functioning, all direct connections Mr. Sark had to the terrorist world were of no use to him. Against my wishes, the CIA decided to release Mr. Sark, believing that he would be of no immediate threat, and hoping that if they could successfully keep tabs on him, we might eventually be able to take in some of his terrorist associates."

"This is absolutely unbelievable!" Vaughn seethed. The CIA made the same mistake with Sark in the past – I can't believe that they let him out of their hands again."

"If you knew all of this – if you were consulted on this – why didn't you tell any of us?" Sydney questioned Sloane, anger evident in her voice. "Dad, did you know about this?"

Jack looked as shocked as all the others in the room and could do nothing but shake his head no. Sydney breathed out, relieved that this wasn't yet another secret that her father had been hiding from her. Sloane, she expected this from. Her father, on the other hand…they were making such progress, and she didn't want a reason to be disappointed by him yet again.

"Well now that I've explained Mr. Sark's release, I would like to continue with the mission briefing. As I explained before, Mr. Crown is an expert on Milo Rambaldi and believes that he has discovered something regarding his endgame. The Covenant wants that information and has made the retrieval of it their number one priority. They are leaving nothing to chance and are pursuing not only Mr. Crown, but also his wife, Charlotte, his two daughters, Ashleigh and Reid, and the girl's husbands, Christopher and Bradley. The one thing we have working in our favor is the fact that as far as we know, the Covenant does not know what any of these individuals look like. We are going to take advantage of this fact and use it to not only help protect the Crown family, but also to gather more information on the Covenant and their current activities. Sydney, Michael, Eric, Nadia, and Jack, you will be going undercover and posing as Ashleigh, Chris, Bradley, Reid, and Kyle respectively. Dixon, you will be going along with them as backup."

"Where are we going?" Nadia asked.

"This evening you will fly to New York City. The three families all live in different locations, but we want to keep all of you together for security reasons. The Crowns own a penthouse in the city and that is where you will be staying. I want you to be conspicuous, but not overly so – the Covenant has to know that you are in the city. The purpose for your visit is simply that you are on a family vacation. We will provide you with all the necessary tools. Marshall?"

"Well first of all I just – Wow. Sark's back. Unbelievable. Actually, it's a little scary. I'm sort of creeped out now. I mean Sark, free? At least – "

"Marshall." Sloane said softly.

"Yeah, ok, back to the mission. We're going to give you all the basics obviously, but since all of you are targets, you need to know where each other are at all times, right? Sooooo, I've inserted microphones into these normal, you know everyday things, so you can be in contact with each other all the time. And the best thing about them – this is really cool, rather genius, if I may say so – is that they are completely undetectable. Totally. No one will ever know that you have them on." With that, he sat down, looking pleased with himself.

Sloane stood up once again. "We will be providing you with the proper identification papers. Since the Covenant has no idea what any members of the family look like, you will not have to alter your appearances. There is no need to pack too much, as there are full wardrobes for all of you waiting at the penthouse in the city. Michael and Sydney, you will be flying out of LAX this evening. Weiss and Nadia, you will fly to Washington DC, and then take another flight to New York. Jack, you will go to San Francisco and take a flight to New York from there. Once you get to the city, there will be cars waiting for all of you to take you to the apartment, cars that you will have full use of while you are on this mission. Dixon will be posing as the doorman to your building should you need backup. You will be checking in with this office daily, more often if anything eventful happens. Here are your tickets. I wish you luck."

Weiss spoke up. "Mr. Sloane? I'm not sure if you noticed this but…who is posing as Jack's wife? I'm sure that it was difficult to get someone to volunteer for that particular job but…"

"Yes. Charlotte Crown. Ah, I think she has just appeared." Sloane said as a shadow darkened the door of the conference room. All heads turned in that direction simultaneously and for the second time that day, the room was filled with a shocked silence.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Sydney choked out a single word, her voice cracking, her tone questioning. "M-Mom?"