Irina is going to kill Arvin Sloane.
Sydney was never supposed to be involved in this life. She is supposed to get her degree in Literature and fall in love and get married. She is supposed to have a normal, happy life.
The path she has chosen holds nothing but pain; Irina knows this too well. She remembers her own hopes, her own expectations, and how quickly she realized life was very different.
Irina never liked Arvin. Perhaps, aware of her own deception, she recognized the darkness in him. But she had tolerated him for Jack's sake.
She suspects, but has never been able to prove, that Arvin had something to do with Jack's imprisonment after her extraction. This is just one of the many reasons she has kept tabs on him for the last decade.
She knows about SD-6 as well, and wonders about Jack's reasons for joining. It's possible he still believes in Arvin's friendship, or if he has also come to see the darkness in Arvin.
Now Arvin has recruited Sydney.
She's furious with Jack as well; how could he allow this? He has just as many – if not more – reasons for wanting Sydney to have a different life. Now Sydney thinks she's working for the CIA when she's really working for the enemy.
Her anger dims slightly as she wonders again just what her deception did to Jack. It doesn't matter that she truly loved – loves – him, that he was never supposed to find out the truth about her.
How different would their lives have been if she had taken a chance and told him?
It's not really that surprising Arvin recruited Sydney, Irina thinks. The daughter of Jack Bristow and Irina Derevko.
Irina is not in control of K-Directorate yet, though she will soon be. But she already has enough power to be able to protect Sydney and knows that Katya will do what she can from within the SVR.
It occurs to her suddenly that she might one day cross paths with Sydney.
Irina doesn't know what she will do if that ever happens. She knows what she should do, but the thought of seeing Sydney face to face after years of photographs is almost enough to undo her tightly controlled emotions.
She has seen Jack several times over the last ten years. The first time, she almost didn't recognize him; he was harder, his eyes cold, his hair almost completely grey. Irina had watched from the shadows, knowing that if he ever found out she was still alive, he would kill her.
Has his anger cooled over the years, she wonders. She doubts it. She destroyed the woman he loved; she doesn't think he'll ever forgive her.
How can he, when she cannot even forgive herself?
But she has been dwelling on the past too long. She stands and crosses to the window, looking out at the passersby.
And starts to think about how she can take revenge on Arvin for recruiting Sydney.