Author's Note: takes place mid season four, spoilers up to then
Of Geico, Aflac, and Alias: Prologue
By: Kityye
The meeting table was gradually becoming like King Arthur's round table. Syd remembered when it had been just Vaughn and her, back in the warehouse when it had all started. Then, her father had joined them. As the rest of the SD-6 gang joined the CIA, briefings had expanded to include Marshall and Dixon and a conference room. The third year (or fifth year, depending on how you counted Syd's two missing years with the Covenant) Carrie and Weiss had been included in the missions so often that they'd become part of the group gathered around the edges of the room. And then this year Sloane and Nadia were integrating themselves. The nine of them together were a noisy, irreverent group.
Well, except for Sloane and Mr. Bristow. Although, occasionally, the two of them could be induced (usually when plied with large quantities of hard liquor, which NEVER happened on job time) to spout noisy reminisces. Also, Dixon had gained a perturbing, detached, Adult air when faced with the entire gang. Syd shuddered as she remembered when Lauren Reed had been part of the daily briefing ritual. Those days were best forgotten.
However, on an average day like today, the office was currently faced with six people between of the ages of 25 and 35 in relatively high spirits. Sloane, Jack, and Dixon entered the conference room and most of the good-natured teasing tapered off. After all, the six were also professionals.
Jack Bristow began by shutting the door firmly, and then locking it. Sloane stood at his seat and waited for Jack and Dixon to sit, while everyone else coughed, shifted in their seats, and generally continued their earlier discussion on a quieter scale. Sloane waited out Marshall's particularly long explanation of why Superman was weakened by Kryptonite ("Oh, sorry, Boss. I'll shut up now. Shutting up. Now.")
"Today we have an unusual assignment," Sloane began in his dry voice.
"Told you," whispered Weiss to Nadia, who giggled. Nadia tended to giggle at whatever Weiss said. There had been no emergencies for three days, nothing to call them in earlier and keep them out later – a highly abnormal state of affairs. The agents had speculated as to why the briefing was actually going to be held at the original time set for it.
There was another Sloane stare before he continued. "The nature of our job involves keeping secrets. Recently, however, the secrets of this team have been causing trouble during our operations."
Everyone began looking suspiciously at everyone else, while trying to look innocent at the same time. "On the last mission, secrets nearly killed Sydney and Nadia." Syd grinned weakly and Nadia sunk down in her seat as everyone transferred their generally suspicious looks specifically to them. Sloane continued: "In the interest of not having secrets killing my agents while they're in the field, we are going to divulge ourselves of them." Swiftly, the suspicious looks were transferred from Syd and Nadia to Sloane again, melting as they went to facial expressions of shock and horror. Jack and Dixon looked grim.
"Um, sir," Vaughn said into the long silence, "Is that safe? I mean, there's the whole 'two can keep a secret if one of them is dead' thing."
"And we're, like," Weiss did a quick head-count, "Nine. Way more than two. And I have no desire to go killing any of you."
"Death is what we're trying to avoid," Jack Bristow interjected. "Last week, Nadia shot the Covenant agent who had vital information he was about to pass onto Sloane, who would have used it to verify information coming from K-Directorate, which would have let us know our Intel was compromised, and Marshall could have come up with an anti-Doberman device so that Sydney would have been able to steal the Ring of Power (that's not a name we devised, mind you) and we would have prevented the enslavement of tens of innocent people."
"Cousin's third-uncle's friend's niece's boyfriend's mother," muttered Weiss. Vaughn elbowed him.
"Now we have to go rescue them," Dixon added sternly, over Weiss.
"Point being," Sloane again took control of the conversation, "The whole fiasco could have been prevented. I've taken the liberty of securing appropriate clearances for everyone here." Sloane picked up a sheaf of file-folders and began passing them out. "We will begin by writing down all of our double-statuses, alliances, contacts, things we know that nobody else does. We will proceed each day by learning another person's life. In the end, nobody will be able to jeopardize another's side-mission again. This will be a lengthy process." Sloane had finished going around the circle and again stood behind his chair. "Today, we prepare our presentations on ourselves. Tomorrow, we start going around the circle, one person a day." To Carrie's look of intense concentration, he added, "There will be a test."
AN2: So, I started this story a year ago, and it's about half-finished. If I get lovely reviews, I will know if I should post more of what I've written (and continue to finish it) or give up on the idea entirely. If you can't tell, it's going to be amusing. And I have great plans in store. So review!
