Not much later, Will made his way into the office. Francie stands up and greets him with a brief kiss.
"We'll talk later," he promises quietly. She nods and returns to her seat as he glances to me.
"Hey Vaughn."
"Will," I reply with a slight nod.
"So what's going on?" he asks. I sigh to myself and give him a brief rundown of the things that have happened since I last saw him.
"That was just the basics," I conclude. "Francie can fill you in on the details later, if you're both up to it. I, for one, can't deal with telling it all over again."
"Perfectly understandable," Will says agreeably.
"Glad you agree," I reply dryly.
"So what happened after the Maldives?" Francie cuts in anxiously. I glance at the open door, hesitant to speak again. Francie, closest to it, stands up quickly and shuts it, going so far as to lock it before she sits down again. Will looks at me silently, waiting for me to continue. I take a moment to gather the thoughts that have been scattered by our near-hour long break, and then proceed with the tale.
On the plane, I slept fitfully for a mere half an hour before waking up to virtual silence. I wondered if Maivia's mysterious packet had been located, and then thought again about his strange actions, the complete change of demeanor. I decided to wipe him from my mind and stood up to go in search of Jack. After listening carefully for a moment, I thought I heard, vaguely, voices down the narrow hall. I followed them, and found myself standing outside the partially open door to Irina's private office. She was in there, speaking with Jack. I was about to knock and enter when something compelled me to stand still. A moment later, I picked up on their conversation.
"And Jack, I'm going to be completely honest with you: I'm scared." Her slightly shaky voice revealed the truth of these words.
"I know you are… we all are. But we can not give up hope. If we do, all is lost, and you know that as well as I. Unless we see a body, I will never stop believing that our daughter is out there… and that we will find her."
"I could never give up on Sydney, I hope you can believe that. But Jack, it's all getting to be-" she cut herself off abruptly, and at the prolonged silence, I peeked in through the marginal slit in the door. Much to my shock, I saw Irina covering her face with one hand, while Jack tenderly held the other. When she dropped her other hand a moment later, I could clearly see all the indications that she had been crying not long ago.
"It is just… so difficult, and I know it's hard for you too, as well as Michael. But there's so much I still want to… still need to tell her. My greatest desire has always been to see her free to live the life she wants, to be married to the man she loves, to truly fulfill her dreams, and most importantly, to be happy. And the fact is, whether any of us want to admit it or not, that may never happen." I couldn't recall ever hearing such uncertainty, such raw emotion, in Irina Derevko's voice.
"We will not let that happen," Jack said emphatically. He, on the other hand, sounded completely confident. Irina didn't give him a direct reply, instead saying, "Perhaps you'd better go wake Vaughn." A moment later, I could hear Jack walking towards the door, so I moved away quickly, hoping to make it appear as though I had just woken up and was on my way to Irina's office… which wasn't entirely untrue, when I thought about it.
As soon as I saw Jack beginning to emerge, I began walking towards the office. He noticed me instantly.
"Michael," Jack said in surprise. "I was just coming to get you."
"Oh really?"
"Yes," he said, giving me a somewhat dubious look.
"Ok. Did you need something?"
"No. Actually, we found the package." I was surprised, not expecting to hear that.
"You did? Let me see it." Jack motioned for me to follow him, and we walked back to Irina's office. When we entered, she had completely regained her composure, and was back to normal. At least, as normal as Irina Derevko gets.
"It was in the computer," she said to my questioning gaze.
"Wait… IN the computer? As in, an e-mail, or what?"
"No. Somehow, the planes systems were hacked into, and this file was left here." I leaned over the desk to look at the screen, and noticed a plain manila folder icon, labeled simply, 'packet.'
"Creative," I growled. "So what's it say?" Irina gave me a look, and then opened the file. A document popped open, and I began reading, only to stop a moment later. It was all encoded. I glanced to Jack in bewilderment.
"Sark is working on it right now," he promised.
"Sark knew about this before me?" I questioned sharply.
"He was the one who found it," Irina said, sounding slightly annoyed.
"Besides which, you were asleep," Jack added.
"This is important enough to be woken up for," I said tightly.
"Sark discovered it not twenty minutes ago, Vaughn, and Irina and I had things to discuss. I was on my way out to get you, as you know." I rubbed my jaw and tried to get over my own annoyance.
"Fine. Any idea how long it'll take him to decode it?"
"This isn't a very complicated one- I've deciphered a few words myself- so I should expect him to be back in here any minute."
"Fine. I'm going to go get something to eat, and then I'll be back in here." Jack nodded to me, and I turned to walk out. I had just reached the door when something else occurred to me.
"Wait… was there anything else in that file?" Jack and Irina exchanged looks, and I could practically feel my jaw drop.
"There is… and you weren't planning to tell me, were you?" I demanded angrily.
"Michael, you know I won't hide anything important from you." Jack stated calmly.
"Do I really, Jack? Because honestly, I don't know what to think anymore. Half the time, I don't think you're telling me everything you know. Now, you may not think it's important, but I do. What else is in that file?" Jack looked to Irina again, and I could sense them conversing with just their eyes. It only added to my anger.
"God damn it, Jack, you two can't do this to me!"
"Fine! You know what, Michael? Sark hasn't even seen this picture either, and there's a reason for that. We were going to show both of you once we had the packet decoded. But if this is what it takes to make you trust me again, than that's what will happen. Get over here." I moved back over, in view of the computer, and saw Irina searching for something. A moment later, a .jpg image file came into sight, and she clicked that open. Being as small as it was, I had to lean closer.
It was blurry, and it was dark, but there was no mistaking Sydney Bristow's face staring out at us.
SAG: You no longer like me? Just because I might be a little bit evil? *innocent look* Now don't go dying me on, we're not done yet… hehehehe.
Lara783: Geesh, someone else calling me evil… lol. Microbiology? Ooh, that's all beyond me… I'm more of a history/linguistic person… hehe.
Thanks for the feedback! … all 2 of you… lol.