Chapter 1: Surveillance

Finally, the meeting was over. It took some time and a lot of explanations, but Irina managed to convince her superior she could get the disk back, and it seemed appealing enough that Chevchenko backed down of the idea of killing Jack. The fact the CIA would cause them even more damage if they were to kill Bristow was a good argument too: The CIA, in its kindness, and despite the ruthlessness of its "concurrent", always used tranq darts instead of real bullets to neutralize enemies agents. They might no be as gentle if they came face to face with an agent from the organisation that killed one of their own.

The plan seemed simple enough, in its basic form, as she exposed it to Chevchenko and her fellow officers: they needed the disk that only Jack could procure, which he couldn't do if he was dead, and to obtain the disk, they needed Jack's cooperation, and for that, they needed a strong argument: his daughter, Sydney.

Fyodor gave her carte blanche, Valenkov and Probulov would accompany her to America. They would start by keeping watch on their target, who, as the daughter of a high-ranking officer of the CIA, would be protected. Learning her routine and the one of her surveillance team would help them determine the best moment to grab her. This was the most difficult part, to get her away from the US without leaving a trail. The whole mission would take a week, maybe more, there were a lot of things they couldn't assess from Russia. They couldn't wait too long either, because if the CIA deciphered the disk, it would be useless to carry on with the mission.

The three Russians left for the US the same day on a private airplane. They arrived at night and discreetly settled into a safe house in Los Angeles, just a few blocks away from where Sydney Bristow lived. They took advantage of the darkness outside to check out the neighbourhood, and possibly spot the CIA agents assigned to the girl.

The area was quiet, everyone seemed asleep as there were no lights coming from anywhere in the streets. It was almost one in the morning. The house hadn't changed a bit in twelve years. The front door was the same, made of strong wood, not the easiest way to enter the house. The garden was well kept, full of roses.

There were no cars in the driveway, and Irina knew Jack never parked in the garage, so she assumed he was not at home at the moment.

"It's a good thing. We don't need him to interfere. It will be easy if she's alone," noted Nikolai.

"Yes, but check out the black sedan parked in front of the next house, they are not fitting in. I see two men inside." Probulov was a talented agent, as was Nikolai, but in a different way. Aged of 49, he had seen lots of things, carried on hundreds of missions, and was a brilliant strategist. He would take care of everything related to Jack Bristow once they had Sydney. They were very much alike, maybe it explained why Irina liked to work with him so much.

"There is another CIA team behind the house," announced Irina, who had kept driving around the block while observing her surroundings. They were nearing the back of the house, after passing by another sedan in which sat two more men.

Again, no changes in the house, there were bushes here and there, some of them partly hiding from the street the window on the left of the door, which lead to the kitchen. Irina remembered when she had seen the house for the first time, almost twenty years ago, on a rainy Monday. She had feared the sun wouldn't come through the windows because of those bushes, but had been reassured when visiting the house a second time, in broad daylight. Jack and she had signed the contracts this day. Here too the door was reinforced, making it impossible to break in the house. Irina took note of that, as did her comrades: that would leave them only the window if they needed to get inside of the house.

Irina left the area as discreetly as she had come, without the CIA teams noticing anything suspicious about the blue SUV with tinted windows that had not even made a full turn around the block. The three agents smiled. Contrary to those stupid monkeys, they fitted perfectly into this neighbourhood, where the majority of the residents drove a SUV.

Sunday was a sunny day, it was now 11 in the morning and some of Sydney's neighbours were washing their cars while others were mowing their lawn. Valenkov and Irina sat in their car, almost right under the CIA's nose, and watched as their target made her way toward her neighbour's house. She stopped in the front yard, saying hello to a blond woman who was watching over her three kids. They talked for a while and then Sydney took of running towards the park. The surveillance equipment stuffed in the car allowed the SVR's agents to listen to the conversation, in which the blond woman thanked the brunette for baby sitting, adding that her kids adored Sydney ; thus causing a smile to creep over Irina's lips. Her daughter had really turned into a fine young woman, perfect on all sides. In full jogger attire, complete with running shoes, her walkman's earphones now firmly plucked in her ears, Syd put on her sunglasses and enjoyed her ride.

"She's beautiful." Thought Irina. She couldn't take her eyes off of her daughter. It was the first time she was seeing her in ten years. Even from that distance, the mother in her recognized her the second she came out of the house. Her long brown hair held in a ponytail, her sparkling brown eyes before she covered them with sunglasses… She was amazing, Irina was captivated.

- "And here I thought all American girls were fat and only into alcohol and junk food! This girl is hot!" Her partner declared, seemingly amused, and oblivious to her.

Irina inwardly growled, she knew of her partner's multiple flings, and how he treated women. The fact that he was hitting on her daughter was not pleasant, but she couldn't really say "stay away from my child you pig", so she just clinically observed: "She's quite muscular, she must exercise a lot, it could cause us trouble, she could fight back harder than we expected."

The man laughed, scornful. "So what? We're SVR agents, she's merely a girl, a kid even. If you don't feel up to it, I can take her down anytime I want, she won't be a problem to me."

Irina glared at him, glared at him, and he swallowed. He knew he had better not screw up the mission, and fooling around with the woman was not a good idea. She was older than he was and he heard that she was one tough cookie and a damn good agent. Some even said she was a match for that American agent, Jack Bristow.

They couldn't follow the girl because the men parked in the car got out, following her as best as they could. They were trained agents but the nice thing with surveillance is that you often get to just seat and watch. That's when the Russians agents noticed that both were wearing jogging outfits.

"It must be a habit of hers if the agents came prepared. It could give us an opportunity." Noticed Nikolai.

"I don't know… it's good for us but it depends on where she goes. There are too many people on the streets or in the park, we can't grab her in broad daylight."

"Yeah, you're right, but look, there is no one watching the house anymore. Anybody can go inside unnoticed."

"Except by the neighbours" snapped Irina. Valenkov was a good agent, he was young, strong, successful, but he had not Irina's experience, least of all with this kind of mission. He tend to be too impatient, and she didn't like that.

"They might not always be there. It's safe to assume that the agents follow her everywhere she goes, and there's no one watching the house meanwhile.

"We'll see."

They remained quiet until their target returned. She was not alone, a young blond man was jogging alongside her. They were followed by the two CIA puppets and arriving fast.

"We need more information on this man and on the agents who are watching the house, on their shifts."

"I'm on it." Nikolai started tipping on his laptop, with which their surveillance equipment was linked. He took a photo of each of the three men, trying to discover as much as possible on them, so he could give a complete report to his current boss, Irina Derevko.

"She's barely sweating, and yet she ran for one hour…" quietly observed Irina, watching her flesh and blood invite the blond man into her house.

"Yep, we'd better not let her escape once we get her, she might just leave us behind." Agreed her colleague, in an admiring tone that didn't suit him at all.

Monday at 6h00 sharp, the blue SUV was parked at a different post, they couldn't risk to attract too much attention. They also had switched the license plates, just in case. The day before, they managed to find out the identity of 8 agents assigned to Sydney. They also discovered the identity of the jogger, a Mr Will Tippin, apparently a friend from school.

At 7h15, they watched as the garage door opened, allowing a burgundy Ford SUV to pull out on the street. The car sped down the road, the sedan and the other SUV following closely.

"She's driving! How old is she!" Valenkov was surprised.

- "Seventeen, the driving age in this state is sixteen," flatly replied Irina. Inside, she was proud, her daughter seemed to be doing great on her own. But at the same time, she felt sad. Who had taught her little girl how to drive? Who had paid for the car, for her studies. Who told her about sex? Did she even have to endure it? Irina, her mother, didn't get to see or do all those things with her, she didn't get to see her grow up, but maybe she could change that, make it up to Sydney. Soon, she promised herself, soon. At least for now, she was able to watch her and learn a little about her. It had been twelve years without even a tiny bit of information on the whereabouts or the situation of her only child. It was hell, but she got used to it. Now that she had her almost right in front of her, she couldn't imagine going back to Russia without at least talking to her.

The 'cortege' ended up at UCLA, a place Irina thought she would never get to see again. She hadn't come back to America once since her extraction, ten years ago. Until this day, she had always managed to avoid being sent on a mission to the US. But she certainly didn't regret taking that one! Being there, watching her daughter park in the student parking lot, seeing hordes of students making their way to their classes or the library… she suddenly felt homesick. She hadn't noticed before that she missed America, Los Angeles, and especially UCLA, where she taught for several years during her 'stay'.

"The agents aren't following her further than the parking lot and I don't think they have someone on the inside watching out for her."

Irina snapped out of her rather depressive train of thoughts and focused on the task ahead.

"Probably not, but then again, it's too crowded."

"Why don't we just shoot the agents in the front of the house with a silencer, go in, knock her out and get the hell out of this crazy country!" Nikolai was getting irritated, restless.

"The later they realise she's gone, the later they'll start looking for us, giving us a precious advance. That's why we have to move in without them suspecting a thing. Plus, we can't afford to have them see us, because they would be able to describe us when interrogated."

"So what do you suggest we do? If we can't capture her here or in her house, I don't see what we can do!"

"Be patient and watch until we get an opportunity". She was growing rather annoyed of the little brat; she didn't like it when subordinates questioned her. It was an obvious sign of mistrust, the first step of betrayal. She scolded herself, she should have known better, Fyodor probably asked him to keep an eye on her, because he believed her to be 'emotionally involved'.

Was she?

TBC