Eyghon
Author's notes: I was very inspired this week end, I wrote three chapters! Thanks to Lenafan for the great beta reading. I take the time to pm you guys, take the time to review please!
Chapter 9: Take it or leave itSydney was sleeping peacefully, thanks to the painkillers she took after dinner. Her mother was sitting by her side, watching her with love.
A few hours after the young girl went to bed, Nikolai barged into the room.
"Agent Derevko, we're leaving."
"Where?" asked Irina.
"Kiev! It's where the exchange will take place tomorrow. We'll be waiting in the car."
"We?"
"Chevchenko thought reinforcement would be useful. He sent some agents from Security Section." He left, leaving his partner to get their hostage ready.
"Sydney? Come on sweetheart, wake up." She gently shook her shoulder.
"What is it?" mumbled a sleepy Sydney. The painkiller's side effects were still making her drowsy.
"We're leaving. Put your shoes and your sweater on, it's cold outside."
"Where are we going?" Asked Sydney, now wide-awake and worried by the sudden agitation.
"To meet your father." At the surprised look on her face, Irina added, "don't get your hopes up. We're only moving to the city where the meeting will take place. You won't see him before tomorrow evening."
"Okay."
"Sydney, we won't go alone, other agents arrived," Irina added gravely, causing her daughter to look at her. "They supposedly are here to escort you, but in truth they are here for me."
"For you? Why?"
"To ensure I'm doing my job correctly. Nikolai must have talked to my superior about his broken nose."
"You were protecting me. Isn't your boss happy I'm still alive?"
"I went too far. It's a grave offense to assault a fellow agent. I won't let them hurt you but we have to play along with them for now, until I can organize an extraction team."
"An extraction team?"
"To get you back where you belong, in Los Angeles. I can't do it on my own now. We would get caught before we even have a chance to leave Peterhof."
"What do you mean by 'playing along'?" Questioned Sydney anxiously.
"We can't have them suspect that I am helping you. They would pull me off the job and send me back to Moscow immediately, and that's the best case scenario."
"What do you mean?" Asked Sydney, fearing to know the answer.
"When I came back in Russia after leaving you, my superiors believed I was no longer loyal to them because I had refused to leave the first time they asked."
"And what did they do?"
"It's not important. The point is, we can't afford to have those security agents getting in the way."
"Wait. I want to know, was it true? Were you no longer loyal to them?"
Irina paused, but replied curtly, "I'm still working for them, am I not?" Everybody knew that the SVR was nothing more than the KGB with a different name.
Sydney acknowledged her mother's rebuff and chose to concentrate on the current matter. "Why can't we just wait and make the exchange? Your friends have the disk and I can go back home. What's wrong with that?"
Irina sighed, "I thought that's what would happen when I told my superior about you, because I thought Jack would do anything to protect you. I was wrong; I didn't know he had become so…detached. He didn't listen to my partner when he told him about the exchange. That's why Nikolai did what he did. To give Jack a lesson. Your father won't just hand over the disk. He'll try something and it won't end well. I can't let that meeting take place; it will be the death of us all."
"What should we do then?"
"Do you trust me?"
Sydney hesitated at first but nodded firmly, "Yes."
"Whatever happens, I will protect you and eventually get you back home. You have my word, never doubt that, do you understand?"
"Yes," nodded Sydney, though not reassured.
A few minutes later, Irina emerged from the house holding a handcuffed Sydney by the arm. Three burly men came forward. Only one of them spoke and in Russian.
"Agent Derevko, a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise, and you are?"
"It is of no importance. We will escort you to Kiev."
"Good. Shall we go now?"
"Yes. I will come with you and Agent Valenkov while my colleagues follow in another car."
Irina nodded and pushed Sydney roughly toward the car, under the watchful eye of the other four agents. She climbed in after her, letting Nikolai and the bald man take the front seats.
The drive to the airport went on silently, as did the flight. Kiev was around 1000 km away from Saint Pétersbourg; it took less than two hours by plane.
They arrived in Borisport International Airport two hours before Jack did. Probulov was already waiting for them in the plane's hangar. They left Sydney in the adjacent office while they discussed strategy in the main room.
The CIA had made some progress in the kidnapping's investigation. Jack learned this when he listened to his voicemail in Borisport Airport. They had the picture of a man stealing the car used to take Sydney away from the mall-parking garage. His name was Nikolai Valenkov and identified as a SVR agent. This information didn't change Jack's mind, merely told him whom he was dealing with: the Russians. The disk was useless anyway, so there was no risk in giving it to the CIA's sworn enemy. Still, Jack knew the consequences would be terrible if that particular agency was to acquire the information encrypted on the disk.
Probulov left to meet with Jack, leaving Irina, Nikolai and the three guards to watch over Sydney. He had decided to go alone, without back up from the present agents and without his 'merchandise'. It would have been too risky, but the Russian had every intention to play fairly, if the American did. It didn't mean he trusted him enough to go in without a contingency plan if the man was to refuse his deal.
The men were playing cards. There was nothing to do beside wait for Probulov's phone call. Irina was nervous, she didn't like the idea of Sydney not going to be present at the trade; it was not common in that kind of business.
She slipped out to go check on Sydney. She found the young girl where Nikolai had left her. She was sitting, hands cuffed to the chair's arms. Irina undid her blindfold. The security agents didn't want her to see their face or the location of the hangar. It was bad enough she knew where the house was located. Once the SVR had the disk, the CIA would know they orchestrated the kidnapping. However, that didn't mean they had to show all their cards.
"Sydney."
"Hey."
"I can't stay long, do you need anything?" asked Irina, patting Sydney's knee, hoping to give her some of her strength.
"No. I just want it to be over," replied Sydney, tired.
"Soon, sweetheart, I promise. My colleague left to meet Jack. If he gets the disk, we'll drive you to a determined location where your father will come and get you later."
"I wonder how he's holding up. He must hate me."
Irina was flabbergasted. "Why would you think that?"
"It's all my fault. This disk you want, it must be important to him, and he has to give it up to you in order to save me. He's doing something bad, for me."
"He doesn't hate you Sydney. He loves you very much, more than his own life I'm sure."
"It's not true anymore. When you died, he died too. He was never the same after that. He doesn't care about me." After a pause, she added, "he forgot my birthday. I still don't understand how he could do that. I mean, it's like a crime. All he does is to tell me to be home by 22h00 on school day or 0h00 on weekends. Once I missed the curfew. He was so mad at me…I swear, he's the devil. He's never there and when he is, he either ignores me or yells at me for nothing…he scares me sometimes."
Doubt overtook Irina. It hurt to think of him this way, Jack was such a sweet man when she was his wife; she remembered him as a great father and husband. Having heard about his limited abilities as a parent, she had to ask, to know, "He never hurt you, did he?"
"No! No, God no! Nothing like that…He just yells really loud, you know…I guess it's the only way he knows how to express himself with me."
Irina nodded distractedly.
"What happens after Dad finds me?"
"He'll bring you back home and you will never hear of us ever again."
"Us? You mean you too?"
"Yes. I can't stay in contact with you Sydney, it would be too dangerous."
"You always say that!" exploded Sydney, "I can't, it's dangerous…yada yada…Why, why can't you visit?" Then, more softly, "maybe if you had told Dad you were Russian he could have protected you. The US government I mean, they're like… powerful, so we could have all gone into witness protection or something. That's what they do in the movies."
It was time for Irina to come clean, about everything. "It's not that simple sweetheart. I did illegal things for my country." Sydney was about to talk again but her mother was faster. "Before you ask what is it I did, know that at the time, America and Russia were at war, every means was employed to take advantage over the enemy. And I mean by both camps."
"I know, you stole information, so what? I'm not stupid. I studied the Cold War. Mafia people do a lot worse and the US still cover their asses."
"It was…Sydney…I committed 'crimes', against the United States government." Irina fidgeted in her seat, uncomfortable.
It took a minute to sink in, but Sydney wouldn't give up. "Like…kidnapping people?" Still, she got no response. This must be bad, really bad, for her mother not to answer. Suddenly, she knew. "Mom, what did you do?" she asked almost in a whisper.
The irony of the fact that Sydney had finally called her 'Mom' at this precise moment was not lost on Irina. She got up, unable to face her daughter anymore, and left the office. Sydney didn't call for her to come back.
Jack's phone rang right after he had passed security. It was the same man again. He told him to take the metro to the Cathedral Hagia Sophia.
So here he was, pacing the cathedral square of the oldest cathedral in the Ukraine, waiting for the kidnappers' intermediary to show up.
It was late but there were still people going home or just wandering the streets. Any of these men could be the one. Jack didn't know. Jack hated to be so clueless, so vulnerable. He had to wait in the bitter cold, alone. For all he knew, it was all a set up to kill him and a sniper was about to take his shot. Why in hell did the man feel the need to meet in Ukraine of all places? He was Russian.
"Hello Agent Bristow."
Jack turned around, startled. A man sitting on a nearby bench had addressed him. He sat beside him, game face on.
"Let's get this over with," he replied coldly, taking control of the meeting.
"As you wish. May I see the disk please?"
"Where is my daughter?"
"Please, you didn't think I would bring her here, did you?" There was no mockery in the man's tone.
"Then we have no business. Good evening." He walked away briskly.
"Fine by me, I don't mind keeping her a little longer, but I don't think she'll be happy with that."
This got Jack's attention. He inhaled slowly and faced the man. "What do you propose we do?"
"This can all go away very quickly. Give me the disk now and I'll have someone drop your daughter off at a public park. Once I am sure the disk is the original and that it hasn't been tampered with in any way, I'll drive you myself to your daughter's location. If you respected your part of the deal, then we can all go home. It's a win / win situation, there is no reason for this to fail. Take it or leave it."
"I assume I have no other choice?"
"Actually you do, but not in the way you'd like. You don't get to walk away alive Jack. You have to choose now. Either you take the chance to trust me, or you die. I know you have the disk on your person. I could have you killed right now but I am a man of my word. A deal is a deal. Not so long ago you were about to be executed by the people I work for. Someone came forward with a plan to recover the disk you stole in Taipei. Either I get that disk or you will be executed. In either case, I win and I make my superiors happy. It's your call but make it fast."
Jack felt a chill run down his spine. So there were indeed snipers surrounding him. "Alright, I'll take the deal." He slowly opened his heavy coat and reached for the disk, mindful of the snipers. He handed it to the older man who took it out of its casing and gave it to a passing 'messenger'. Jack observed as the biker disappeared from his sight.
"The analysis should only take a few minutes," reassured the man, taking out his cell phone. "It's me; bring her to the agreed location."
Jack Bristow did not blink as he heard the man give the order. He prayed his friend's 'addition' to the disk would go undetected.
Back in the hangar, Nikolai hung up his phone. He motioned for his companions to get ready while he went to fetch Sydney. Irina had stepped outside earlier without saying a word.
"Come on bitch, we're leaving." He blindfolded her before cuffing her hands behind her back. He then proceeded to drag her to the main room where the car was waiting. He took two agents with him and ordered the third man to follow them in a second car
Sydney wasn't sure what was happening. At first, when Nikolai had burst in the office, she thought he wanted something from her. He had practically thrown her in the backseat of the car without explanation and her mother didn't seem to be there.
Now they were driving through the countryside, she could tell from the lack of stops and noises. It was bad, really bad.
What if they were driving her to her death?
TBC