Chapter Six
LOS ANGELES
SYDNEY'S RESIDENCE
Before Sydney could protest Peter's arms enveloped her in a hug; they stayed in that position for a few seconds before the young Agent pulled back, seeing the annoyance in Vaughn's face as she looked over the German's shoulder. The welcoming was obviously familiar to him, something that they probably did whenever they used to meet up back in the 'Covenant days'. But to her, now, it seemed like a foreign action with him. She didn't know this man anymore. There wasn't even an inkling of familiarity. Sensing her discomfort Peter nodded and took a step back, she needed a bit of space and that was understandable. After putting a call into Dixon and rerouting it to airport security Jack had finally been able to do what his daughter had previously been unable to, and contact Vaughn to give him an update.
Dixon had given authorization to give Peter a cliff noted version of what had happened to the younger Bristow. They hoped that with what Peter knew and what little Sydney had found out in the last week or so they could actually find some answers. Being around Peter could also serve to help her remember a few things that could help the investigation. They were also hoping that Peter would become comfortable enough to spill a few secrets he may have been keeping close to the chest back at the airport. All in all it would take patience and time; they were all short on both.
"I will help you find your mother" Peter swore. He sounded so honest and sincere that it was almost easy to believe he could do just that. It would probably be easier to find an amateur street magician that was able to pull a rabbit out of a hat. And make it talk.
Instead Sydney simply smiled and replied. "I hope so."
As Peter had come to them and did appear to be cooperative so far, if one dismissed the prodding Vaughn had to do at the start of the interrogation back at LAX, he was not deemed a flight risk. Dixon was keeping the 'informant' in Jack and Dixon's capable hands. The stoic double agent ushered the small group of Sydney, Vaughn and Michael back inside the house. Will was still there and had crashed in the spare bedroom half an hour earlier. Someone was going to have to sleep on the couch and possibly the floor, the latter depended on whether Jack decided to stay also. He closed the door behind them and locked it, meeting Sydney's eyes for a moment Sydney got the distinct impression that her father wanted to speak with her in private but with all the current guests that was going to be difficult; especially when the two new arrivals wanted to be updated properly on the new developments.
Sydney nodded almost imperceptibly, letting her father know that his unspoken message had gotten through. Turning away from him she headed into the kitchen to start up another round of coffee. Jack stayed on the outskirts of the room to take note of Peter. His tan had gone now to leave the pale tone of somebody that had been out of the sun for quite some time, he took note of the unfamiliar territory out of grey eyes behind perfectly circular light brown glasses, the colour was chipped at the side through too much handling and not enough of being looked after. He had changed into a simple white tee and faded black jeans to better accommodate the warm climate of Los Angeles. He could easily have passed as a local, once he got his tan back. Jack got the unusual feeling that he could trust him. But then he had once thought that about Arvin Sloane and that had changed pretty quickly once he found out the truth about him.
Until Peter did anything to either solidify the trust or jeopardize it, Jack would reserve judgement. Until then he would find out as much as possible.
Sydney came back into the room and set down four mugs of coffee then sank wearily into one of the chairs. "So..." she began, not quite knowing how to start this. "How do you know about me?" she almost but not quite blurted out. To be truthful Sydney was getting tired of the hesitancy surrounding the subject of what had gone on when she was at the Covenant. Here was a man that could possibly help her and she wasn't going to wait around any longer.
Peter settled back on the couch, one arm stretched lazily across the arm. Whether he had forgotten about the other men or was just that comfortable in Sydney's company they weren't sure. After a few seconds of quiet contemplation he began. Despite his tall and toned stature he had a rather soft voice and even from a few feet away she strained to hear him. His voice belied what he could actually be like if he became angry enough. "Ah," a smirk traced his face "you were quite guarded at first. For a long time I was just your contact and sometime supplier. It remained that way for many months. I knew you were not truly a Covenant Agent." The smile slowly left his face. "Ashford found out about you though I swear I did not tell him my suspicions. He is, was rather, a paranoid snake anyway. More so when you came along. I used to think sometimes you fueled that part of him on purpose to frustrate him. Even if that was not the case I admit I did it as often as I could --."
Thinking that the slightly older man was about to become lost in his memories Vaughn prompted him, "so what happened exactly after Ashford found out the truth?"
Snapping back to the present Peter resumed control of the conversation. "Yes, I was saying...Ashford did not know the exact truth about Sydney's identity; rather he instead knew she was deceiving her employers when she said she was a faithful Agent. However much he did know he was dangerous. Unfortunately when he did make his move I was out of the country but I know many people and one in particular was very concerned when I called and explained that your life was in immediate danger." Again he stopped, something he had a tendency to do. It was not a thing he did to annoy it was just a habit. He always spoke as though there were no rush and time was not a problem for him. "I get ahead of myself though and I think this is something you would want to know..."
"How would you like to obtain your goal quicker than you thought you could?" Peter took off his orange sunglasses and slipped them in the pocket of the black leather coat he wore and regarded the woman in front of him with a curious look. He made a motion with his hand to told her he would very much like to know where she was going with this particular line of questioning. She obliged gladly though it did not show on her face. "Your place within the Covenant at this time can not help you gather sufficient information to bring them down. However they -- found, a new Agent that, given enough time, will be able to help you. She will want the same thing you do."
He nodded, interested. "Okay Irina you have me wanting to know more."
"At this time their new Agent is still gaining their trust. She has been with them, I believe, for a few months now but they have good reason for keeping a close eye on her. In a week they will send her on a new mission, the details of which you will be told by the Covenant. You will be her contact. They've used you enough times that they trust you, they will ask you for a report on her."
"They would want a simple contact to give them information on one of their own?" his confusion was evident.
"For now, yes. They need to know they can trust her enough to give her more of a free rein, something they've wanted to do. You give them a good and clean report of her activities and she has the freedom she needs to carry out her investigation of them. Once you've built up a rapport with her, told her what you want, she will trust you and, I hope share what she knows which will help you."
Peter sighed and rubbed his eyes. The day had been long and all he wanted to do was fall asleep and not wake up for a good ten hours, at least. And then Irina had contacted him with this tantalizing proposal. "You seem very sure of what she will do."
"...Yes, I do. I'm not just doing this to help you. This is personal" he saw her eyes harden, knew this was serious. "The Agent is Julia Thorne but she went by another name. Julia is an Alias the Covenant gave her, her real identity is Sydney Bristow."
There was a sharp intake of breath on Peter's part. The connection to Irina was simple to make, he knew who Jack Bristow was and that must mean that Sydney was her daughter.
"Hold on a minute" Jack interjected, "she just told you who Sydney really was?"
Peter's head snapped up. "Yes" he sounded indignant. "She trusts me. She knew I would tell no one the truth," and he added loyally "she would never disclose information of this kind to anybody."
Jack nodded. He knew that. He was angry though; she knew all this and she never told him. It hurt. He wanted a reason why she never gave him the information he needed to get Sydney out of the Covenant.
"Go on" Sydney coaxed. She seemed to be like a child at that moment that was hooked on a bedtime story, needing to know more. Everything even.
"You can help her. You know most of the safeguards the Covenant has in place and how to get around them. What you know can help Sydney stay alive."
"I will do what you ask. Not just to help myself but to repay the debt I should have repaid a long time ago" Peter answered solemnly. He took the thin folder that Irina held out for him but didn't open it yet but would do so as soon as he got back to the comfort of his own home.
She looked up at him thankfully. "There is no debt" Irina reminded him.
He waved his hand in a dismissive fashion. "There is to me."
"It is how I came to know about you, Sydney. I know you will have answers, some that I cannot answer. I don't know how she came to know you were in the Covenants slimy hands. Irina has many contacts and I suspect one of them gave her the information she sought. He omitted any explanation about the debt. Sydney had known once, before her loss of memory. It was private and now known again only to him. If Sydney remembered he thought that with it would come the knowledge that she should tell nobody.
"Why didn't she contact my dad and tell him what she knew? Why did she keep it a secret?" Sydney asked what she just knew her father would want to know. Jack shot her what could be perceived as a grateful look.
"When she found out your location it was too late. Your father" he craned his neck to the right to speak directly to the man they were talking about. "Agent Bristow, you had just been taken into prison. The timing was most unfortunate of course but it could not be helped. Rather than wait for a time that you were released she thought it better to act straight away."
Jack seemed pleased with the answer, relieved almost. Instead of replying on that topic he returned to the previous one, "Ashford."
"Yes. As I was saying earlier Ashford found out that you were not to be trusted. Instead of reporting it the, fortunately for us, stupid man took matters into his own hands. Wanted to look like some kind of hero to the Covenant" Peter rolled his eyes. "I contacted Irina and told her that Ashford was closing in on you" at this he nodded in Sydney's direction. "She knew if she just killed him there would be questions that needed to be answering, an investigation into what he was doing. So Irina saved you herself and made it look as if she had killed him. The spotlight was taken off you, Sydney, and they began hunting her. As much of a weasel as Ashford was he was a weasel they needed."
Tears glistened in Sydney's eyes but they didn't fall. She was through with crying, tears solved nothing. "Why didn't she just tell me what she was up to to start with?"
Peter answered softly. "She told me how she left you the last time. You were confused with her motives for things she did. Irina did not think you would trust her. If you wouldn't trust her then there was no hope for you trusting me. Would you have believed her?"
Shaking her head sadly Sydney admitted that no, she would have thought it to be all lies. More lies.
"And they chose me to kill her."
"I do not believe you could do that. In there was intense therapy to make you think you were Covenant Agent Julia Thorne and that did not help, you still knew who you truly were. The only way they could make you kill your mother would be to make you go through it all again -- they would have no reason to do so because by then they trusted you implicitly. There is no logical reason for you to kill your mother" he shook his head, refusing to believe in the possibility of that happening.
But it still didn't bring them any closer to finding out where she was.
Only Jack had that solution. "Sydney, I need to talk to you" he didn't need to add 'in private' Vaughn and Peter got the point.
Thank you for being so patient waiting for this This is a bit of an exposition chapter, okay a lot of one. I hope you still find it good. Like in shows this point has to come where questions are answered and that point has been reached here.
