FAMILY MATTERS

Eyghon

Sydney gulped, trying to make sense of what she was seeing, of what that meant. "We have to break into the DSR," she declared, fixing Irina with a steely gaze.

Chapter 11: Double Derevko trouble (1/2)

"You may go," Irina told Doctor Varnina before leading Sydney to her office where they could talk in private. She closed the door behind them and immediately started. "Sydney, what is going on?"

"As you know, I'm now Co-Director of APO. The title comes with a raise and a number of restrictions, but more importantly, with a level 8 Security Clearance. Being in black ops, I can snoop around without too many people asking questions. The DSR was never big on sharing with the CIA when I was an agent there. I've been monitoring their activities and I discovered that they've been hiding things from the other agencies, including the CIA, probably on orders from the NSC."

"What are you talking about?" Asked Irina, not used to being in the dark.

"Are you up to date on what has been going on during your absence?"

Irina sighed. "I've lost many contacts over the last year. Yelena got to them; they died, or retired. I've been having trouble establishing new relations and my mind has been busy with everything that happened."

Sydney nodded pensively, weighing how much she should tell or not tell to her mother. "Ever heard of Project Black Hole?" Irina gave her a blank look. "It's the name of a DSR facility in the Nevada desert. They deal with everything Rambaldi related."

"And you trust me with this information?" She tilted her head, studying her daughter more closely.

"Yes. Because I trust you. Like me, you have Nadia's best interests at heart. We're partners Mom. Partners that don't trust each other fail at best, or end up dead."

Irina nodded solemnly, feeling proud of her daughter. "Tell me about that Project Black Hole."

"It's impenetrable, only the higher ups know about it. I learned of it from Dixon a while back. They have the latest technology, the best people…you get the idea."

"What's your point?"

"The DSR uses this place to store every Rambaldi piece of work American agencies ever recovered. Some I know about, some I don't."

"You think they have something that could help Nadia," realised Irina.

"Not exactly. Like I said, I don't have access to this place, but I broke in a while back. What I saw there made me want to dig further. Project Black Hole is only the tip of the iceberg. They don't just store stuff there; they study them, try to reproduce them, to use them in experiments…I know for a fact that they've been trying to find medical and military applications for years to every single piece they own. For them, Rambaldi is not just about old prophecies and visions as we thought. Project Black Hole is much bigger. It's been in place for years, studying everything that Man couldn't explain. There are more Nevada-type facilities all over the US. There's more to it than what the NSC is letting on."

"But Rambaldi meant for the cleansing to happen. He wouldn't have created a cure for the illness," reminded Irina.

"He didn't, but the DSR did."

Irina sat down on a chair facing her desk. Sydney imitated her. "Go on."

"One month after I was promoted as Co Director, the DSR requested a batch of Cobalt-60 APO seized during a mission. I was the one to sign the paperwork for the transfer. APO is supposed to be a black ops division of the CIA, responding only to the highest people in American Intelligence. We're supposed to hand over whatever we get our hands on to certain people. Neither the NSC nor the DSR are supposed to know about us, least of all to ask anything of us. It's just not the proper protocol. I was told to comply and not ask questions."

"This is strange, indeed, but I don't see what it has to do with Nadia…"

"Let me finish, Mom! I followed up on it and it was just too weird. Radioactive cobalt should not be passed around like this. I've only started to get some answers from contacts because the DSR is keeping this close to the vest. I had Marshall put a tracker on the case containing the Cobalt. He traced it to a low security NSC facility in San Diego."

"That doesn't make any sense. The US government would not be careless enough as to store any radioactive substance in a low security facility." Irina was puzzled.

"My point exactly. Something was seriously wrong there so I did some more digging. This place is mainly occupied by DSR personnel, scientists, engineers…you get the picture. The Cobalt-60 was requested to be used in a project called 'estirpazione'."

"Eradication? Why give it an Italian name? And what does it have to do with a cure?"

"Because it's connected to Rambaldi. That's what Varnina showed us."

"Impossible, Sydney. I'm an expert, I would have recognised it," argued Irina, frustrated at being given the answer piece by piece.

"You know about Rambaldi's green fluid, right?"

"Yes. Injected into the Passenger, Nadia, it allows her to channel Rambaldi." Irina's thoughts wandered to her youngest daughter, and how scared and confused she must have been were the man she believed to be her father had subjected her to the fluid, thus directly exposing her to Rambaldi's madness.

"That's what the formula Frankel was working on reminded me of. It was a synthetic replica of the genuine fluid. He created a synthetic Rambaldi fluid. He somehow knew the cure was linked to the fluid, maybe he heard Elena mention it, I don't know. The point is, he tried to recreate it to use it somehow and failed. But the DSR had the real thing and I believe they succeeded."

"Succeeded in what?" Asked Irina, near exasperation.

"You were right, Rambaldi did not plan on curing the infected. He died in 1499; Cobalt was discovered in 1735. There is no way he could have known that his green fluid combined with Cobalt-60 would create a cure for the plague he would later unleash."

"Cobalt-60 is used in radiotherapy, Sydney. It treats cancer. How can it help Nadia?"

"I know this sounds crazy, but if you think about it, it makes sense. The DSR exposed a batch of the Rambaldi fluid to the gamma radiation of the Cobalt-60 APO gave them. It apparently resulted in the fluid becoming an actual cure to the disease."

"Are you sure it is effective?" Asked Irina in disbelief.

Sydney shrugged. "It's never been tested on a human being but under a microscope, it does 'eradicate' the waste particles like it would eat cancer cells."

"This is incredible! How could the DSR hide this?" Irina asked in wonder.

"I don't know." Sydney shook her head, disgusted. "I guess they had some obscure reasons of their own."

"What do we do now?"

"We go get that cure from them."

"What do you have in mind?" Sydney already had a plan from which she would not deviate. Her resolved tone spoke volumes.

"I have an idea that might be just crazy enough to work."

Irina quirked an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

"Obviously, I can't just go in and take whatever I want. It's too risky to break in. But, being a Director of APO, and the base being a low security facility, I can get in through the front door under a false pretence and then, once inside, make my way to wherever it is they keep that cure."

"And how do you plan on not getting arrested?"

"That's where the crazy part of my plan comes in. 'I' am going to be stealing the substance while 'I' will be at work."

"You're not making any sense, sweetheart."

Sydney smirked. "You've missed quite a lot, Mom." She winced as Irina's eyes darkened. "Sorry, didn't mean to…sorry. Lauren Reed walked in the LA field office after she was officially put on a shoot to kill list for treason. She bombed it, killed an agent, injured more than a dozen others."

"My God!" Exclaimed Irina, surprised. "Were you…"

"No, I wasn't there. Not exactly. I was visiting Nadia in a safe house…Lauren got past security by pretending to be me. She got her hands on my prints, my DNA…everything that allowed me to get into the core of our division. Thankfully, the CIA figured out it wasn't I, but the damage was already done. Later I made myself pass as Lauren to Sark. He bought it. If someone can pass as me and get in the NSC while I'm, say, at APO with a dozen agents for witnesses, I'll be free before the end of the day."

"That's ingenuous. But is it not too big of a risk?"

"Trust me. It's the only way and if we play our cards right, there won't be any problem."
Irina thought about it for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. I'll arrange for a meeting with a technician I hired for several other jobs. I'm sure he'll have the connections to deal with all the aspects of the…'costume'. We'll also have to find someone matching your description, with enough experience to walk into a government facility without panicking."

"No. 'You' will have to pass as me. You know me. Kind of. We are the same height and weight, same eyes. It will be easier than to hire an outsider. And you're bold enough to pull it off without breaking a sweat."

"That makes sense," agreed Irina, pleased that Sydney was cognizant of her skills.

"One more thing. I can't provide you with the necessary samples. It needs to be done so that it can't be traced back to me. Marshall is a genius, he would figure it out in minutes, and I'd be busted. I can't ask him to lie for me, not even for Nadia, I won't put him in that position."

"So I need to take your prints, blood and DNA from other sources, without your knowledge."

"Yes. It's the only way whoever is assigned the investigation will leave me alone. There can't be the slightest bit of suspicion of me or I'm finished. I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"I will, don't worry, your reputation is safe with me," Irina promised.

"Glad to hear it."

"I'll arrange for everything. You go back to Los Angeles, go back to work, to your routine, and we can be ready within a week."

"Good. Thank you, Mom. It's good to have you on the team."

"The team?"

"The good guys, me, you know, working together. It feels great." Sydney grinned at her

"It certainly does, sweetheart."

TBC