Chapter 24

The Following Takes Place Between 5:00 A.M. and 6:00 A.M.

"Marshall?" Kim said

The genius stared at his computer for another moment, still clacking away, before he said, "Yes?"

"You're pretty smart, right?"

At this point, Flinkman blinked, then looked over at the blonde Bauer. He blinked a few more times, and said, "If I weren't, I'd be pretty useless."

"I was just thinking...remember how we were talking about how to take out Sloane a while ago?"

Marshall nodded, then his brow furrowed as he frowned. "Yeah. Almost forgot about that..."

Kim blinked, almost about to ask how he could have forgotten, but she'd been his babysitter too long to ask that. "You set it up so that it would inform you if something matched, right?"

"Of course."

"Oh, okay." She sighed lightly, then turned back to her computer. "And you're sure it would put in a failsafe, so..."

"You know, that's a problem."

Kim paused, then looked back to him. "What is?"

"I was thinking that Rimbaldi would put in a failsafe because it's automatic. But if he's some sort of genocidal, end the world, James Bond villain-like, why would he? With his point of view, the world so horrid and evil and grisly and—"

"I get the point Marshall."

He nodded. "Now, if we follow that train of thought, then why would he give us... the future us, not us at APO, of course, Sloane doesn't work here anymore... why would he give us ways to stop him?"

Kim nodded. "Didn't I ask that like two hours ago?" She sighed and turned around back towards her computer. There was still work to be done. "If I didn't know better, I would have said that this was one of your Star Trek episodes."

Marshall blinked, then shrugged, then turned back to his computer...and then turned back. "What do you mean?"

Kim looked back at him. "Every time I hear you say something about Star Trek, it always sounds like there's always a cosmic test by some superior alien race to prove whether or not whoever comes across them should survive."

Marshall nodded, then smiled. "Maybe you're right."

*

Arvin Sloane was on the verge of victory, ready to end the world as he, and all of his allies, knew it.

However, Sloane was a bit less certain than he was letting on. He had no doubt that the sacrifice would bring this about, but the reason he had created the virus was because it would be a much more purifying method than nuclear war. There wasn't enough data to prove that the body could survive exposure to nuclear material. He already knew that his immortal body could feel pain; would they enjoy the possibility of death by radiation, universally considered the most excruciating way to die, possibly over and over?

"Mr. Sloane." Walker, one of his few remaining allies, approached him.

"What is it?"

"The doctor has been doing everything that he can to keep Derevko alive," Walker began, "but he's almost positive she's started hemorrhaging. He can slow the bleeding, but even so she hasn't got much time left."

"Neither do we," Sloane said, looking at the sky. "I believe that it's time we got started." He began walking outside. "Get the boats ready, as well as the prisoners. I want to be out of here in three minutes."

5:04:46/5:04:47/5:04:48

"Jack, it's Dixon. Did you get the modifications for Sark's immunity agreement?"

Jack tucked the cell phone between his ear and shoulder. He moved towards one of the helicopters as he checked his pistol. "Yeah," Jack said. "Sark was willing to give up the location on Sloane. In order to make the sacrifice, Sloane needs a relatively big boat to make it that far into the Pacific. Sark says that he was going to do leave from Santa Monica Bay as of five minutes ago. We're going to take the chopper to close in on his last known coordinates."

"Which have to be in the middle of the Pacific Ocean."

"I've already contacted the Coast Guard. They'll be able to help us handle the rendezvous," Jack told him over the helicopter blades.

"If you go near Sloane's ship with a gunship, if he even hears a helicopter, he'll only speed up the ritual and kill everyone."

"We'll use the choppers to get close, then approach by water."

"And if Sloane is there, have you or Sydney figured out exactly how you're going to stop him from completing the ritual?"

Jack smiled as he spoke into the cell phone. "We don't have to kill him to stop the ritual—shooting him will stop him for a few minutes. That should give us enough time to restrain Sloane, and we can figure out what to do with him later. Right now, I just want Nadia and Isabelle back. We can worry about him later."

"What about the virus Sark captured?"

"We're bringing it with us. It might be a bargaining chip if it comes down to a standoff."

"Bargaining chip? Jack, are you nuts?"

Jack didn't reply as he slipped into the front seat of the helicopter, next to the pilot. Sydney was already secured behind him, Julian Sark seated next to her. The helicopter was already taking off when Bauer spoke again, his voice simple and cold, and deadly. "Dixon, right now, I don't give a damn what you think. If holding onto the virus can buy us even a moment to deal with Sloane, then it will be worth it. As far as I'm concerned, I will do whatever it takes to get both Isabelle and Nadia back alive. You can complain as much as you like afterwards, assuming we all live."

Dixon ground his teeth so hard, Bauer could hear it over the cell. "Anything else?"

"Yes, I need Kim and Marshall on the way to meet us at the harbor. That'll know what equipment to bring with them."

"Is that it?"

"Unless someone can give me a better suggestion—"

"Do I count?" Sark suddenly piped up..

Sydney glared at Sark. "Are you asking for us to push you out into the Pacific handcuffed?"

"As you have pointed out many, many times," Sark reminded her, "I am more than willing to do anything in order to survive. Since that possibility now rests entirely on you succeeding—"

Jack nearly rolled his eyes. "What do you have in mind?"

"There's a motorboat at the pier that's a Covenant prototype," Sark told him. "Supposedly the fastest thing on the water. I suspect that the only reason Sloane isn't on it right now is because it only seats two. And because at one point I was the head man of the conspiracy, I happen to know that it's right here and where the keys are."

"And what exactly is the catch?" Sydney asked.

"No catch, no escape clauses, no hidden snares," Sark told him. "Just take a quick journey, save your family, stop Sloane, and save the world. " He paused. "And remember this when you're considering whether or not to put a bullet in my brain."

Jack considered it quickly. "All right, but if you screw us on this, I will contact the guards we leave with you, they will shoot you, and say you died resisting arrest. Clear?"

Despite all the hostility, Sark seemed to have regained his equilibrium. "I would expect nothing less," he said calmly.

We should give up trying to rattle him, Sydney thought. "All right," she said. "What have you got for us?'

5:12:30/5:12:31/5:12:32/5:12:33

One of the few advantages of being at Hawthorne Airport was that it wasn't that difficult to take a chopper up and out. Now that the final plans were in motion, Vaughn had no desire to stay, and he wanted to get as much distance between himself and the remains of Saunders as he possibly could.

Now that he was in the air, he dialed a number.

"CTU, Kim Bauer."

"Kim, it's Vaughn."

"Michael, I'm so sorry about what happened to Mr. Bristow," she said with a note of sorrow in her voice.

"So am I," Vaughn said honestly. He reflected for a moment on what happened. His relationship with his father-in-law was an odd one. The days when he liked him were marked with heavy doses of sarcasm. "Now, I guess it's our job to see that his sacrifice wasn't for nothing."

"Right now, Sark supposedly is taking my father and Sydney to Sloane's final location," Kim told him. "Do you think he's telling the truth?"

"Sydney and Jack are," Vaughn pointed out, "and at this point it's not like we have a lot of other options. Besides, Sark knows he's on a very short leash right now, and if Syd and your father think he's lying, they don't need much more motivation to push him out and see if he can fly."

"That may be true, but if Sark can be believed, Sloane's now got an entire ocean to play hide and seek in," Kim reminded him. "And he doesn't even have to spend much time avoiding from us before he can claim a win."

Vaughn didn't need to be reminded of this. "Have you got the final coordinates? I need to tell my pilot where to take me."

"Well, according to Sark, the final launching point for Sloane is the Post Harbor section of the Will Rogers State Beach, due northwest in the direction of Santa Monica Bay," Kim began typing figures on the keyboard. "I've already made contact with the Navy's sonar and radar systems and I'm going to be coordinating with them to see if we can track down anything that's out on the water now."

"Well, that'll help us find Sloane," Vaughn said. "I don't suppose that you've got any information on how to stop the son of a bitch when we find him."

'Funny you should mention that," Kim told him. "Marshall and I spent a good part of the last hour going through the program which had almost everything Rimbaldi ever wrote."

"Um, how many hundreds of pages were there in that file?" Vaughn asked.

"It's amazing what Marshall can get done with one of his programs and a photographic memory," Kim reminded him.

"What did you find?"

"Nothing, actually."

"All that and nothing?"

"It surprised me, too."

"Given all the crap that Rimbaldi usually puts us through to solve one of these things, I would have expected a treatise."

"Yeah, I know... "

"The bloodletting that Sloane has to do in order to pull this off, does that he have to do it at sunrise or by sunrise?"

"The language is unclear," Kim paused, then plunged. "But knowing what I do about Sloane and Rimbaldi, he'll do whatever he has to make sure that we can't get through any loopholes. Which means he'll probably start spilling blood the second he thinks he's in the right spot."

"And we still don't know how much blood he needs?"

Kim figured it would have to be quite a lot, but knew Vaughn didn't need to hear this. "I'll keep you updated on whatever coordinates I manage to get. You concentrate on getting there ASAP. Marshall and I will meet you there."

Vaughn blinked, and would have baulked. "What? Why?"

"You remember the heart monitors that Marshall talked about? He kept going on about them since they were in those Rainbow 6 games he plays? We're going to set one up and run comm from there, and tell you where the bad guys are without needing to see them."

"How?"

"I'm assuming we're in the back of the boat while you, Dad, and Syd go and kill everyone."

5:19:53/5:19:54/5:19:55

"How far out are we?" Sloane demanded, looking through his binoculars

"About six miles," said the man standing at the wheel.

It wasn't clear to Nadia whether this was far enough for her father or not, but she soon got a clear idea.

"Jacobson, get the rocket launcher ready," Sloane ordered, "and bring out Derevko."

As Jacobson went below deck, Nadia couldn't help but notice something. Sloane already had her hogtied to the port, and he was probably going to kill her any minute, so it wasn't like things could get much worse. "So where are the rest of your loyal followers?"

"Your friends and your sister have done a pretty good job of killing them all," Sloane admitted. "On the plus side, since I didn't waste any of my fluid on them, there are going to be fewer people I have to worry about getting immortality."

"I suppose there's a bright side, even about the end of the world," Nadia said with as much irony as she could manage. "You won't have to worry about paying any extra money out to whatever minions you have left. Speaking of which, just how many minions do you have left with a pulse?"

"Now's not the time to be criticizing your captors," one of the others on deck said nervously.

"You're already going to kill me; it's not like I have much left to lose," Nadia managed in a relatively glib tone. "And I'd think that you'd be very concerned. You see, there are currently nine people on this point. Three of them are supposedly your prisoners, which leaves you with six gallant soldiers, not counting my father, who is currently invincible and doesn't count. Now when Jack and Sydney come for me—" she looked directly at her father "and trust me, they will, they're going to come with enough backup to take over Encino. How long do you think it will take for them to put you down like dogs?"

"If we spill your blood soon enough, it won't matter whether they do it or not," the thug said.

"Last I checked, this thing takes out 99% of the world's population," Nadia reminded them. " Just what do you think the odds are that all five of you have the exact genetic makeup that will enable you to survive this plague that's coming? I mean, even if he has given you whatever formula—"

She never finished as Sloane had walked right up to her and slapped her across the face.

"I think we've long since passed the point where you could have anything productive to say," Sloane told her almost casually. "My men all know that the chances they have of surviving this outbreak are slim, but compared to the mercies of CTU and your friends, those odds are positively stratospheric. All of you managed to do is force me to intensify your pain.

"And I repeat, you can't exactly kill me twice."

"No, but I can make your last minutes infinitely more painful."

Jacobson had returned with Irina slung over his shoulder. Before, her mother would have made him pay dearly for this, but given how pale she was and how blood-soaked her clothes were, it was clear the mighty Irina Derevko was no longer a danger to anyone.

"You've made it clear that you don't consider her your mother any more," Sloane said, as he helped lug her over to the edge of the starboard. "Then it's not going to bother you to watch this happen."

"…no..." Apparently sensing the end was near, Irina made an effort to grab at Sloane's arms.

"I'm truly sorry for this, Irina, " Sloane said with his usual faux dismay. "I had hoped that we could usher in the new age together. Instead, I wish you peace, and the knowledge that your death shall not be for nothing."

Moving quicker than Nadia would have thought possible, Sloane took out a large knife, and stabbed Irina in the chest and the neck. Then, before the blood could begin to truly flow, he and Jacobson heaved her over the side.

And despite everything that Irina had ordered and tried to do, Nadia's felt a huge pain fill her body. Refusing to show her father any sign of weakness, she clamped her mouth shut, but a small gasp of pain emerged nonetheless.

The next one is going to be Isabelle she thought through her anguish. Hurry, Syd. We don't have much longer.

5:28:11/5:28:12/5:28:13/5:28:14

Bristow, Bauer, and Sark jumped out of the helicopter before it had even touched down. Kim and Marshall, each carrying backpacks of equipment, waited for theirs to land first. By the time they left the chopper, Jack had already gotten to the Covenant speedboat and had the engine going.

Sydney, holding onto Sark's arm, noted Kim on approach. "Where are we on locating Sloane?" Sydney shouted over the helicopters.

Kim didn't look up from her hand. She held onto a palmtop computer, looking over the data as it came in. It used to be an iPhone before Marshall got his hands on it. "I'm correlating our systems with Navy radar. Fortunately, there aren't a lot of ships on the water. We should be—"

Chloe chose that moment to butt in over their comms. "Got it!" she told them. "There's a large schooner called Mirage. Papers trace it back to a holding company once owned by Elena Derevko. Say this for Sloane, he's a firm believer in 'waste not, want not'."

Jack revved the engine again. "What are its coordinates?" he demanded.

Kim smiled as the data finished downloading from the satellites. "According to this, quadrant East 37 degrees, 29 minutes, north 55 degrees, 47 minutes!"

Jack looked over at the dashboard.. "According to that, we're roughly seven miles away. How far out is the Coast Guard?"

"Ten minutes, give or take."

"We can't wait that long," Sydney responded. She looked to the two agents as they got out of their helicopters. "Take this man and chain him to the struts of the helicopter. Then get on the radio and tell Agent Vaughn to stay with his chopper and keep back until the fireworks begin."

Sark smiled as Kim Bauer strode past him. "Hello, madam. And which one of the general cast are you?"

Kim hardly broke stride as she drove the edge of one of the equipment suitcases into Sark's gut. He doubled over, gasping for breath, and smiled at Kim's back. "Never mind, you must be Bauer's daughter."

Kim looked at the speedboat and sighed. She thought this job would mean being left in the office. So much for that idea. "Come on, Marshall."

He groaned. "I hate fieldwork."

5:35:05/5:35:06/5:35:07

Because Nadia had been trying to discreetly work free of her bonds while keeping an eye on the sky, she hadn't made a sound. However, as another one of the thugs approached with Isabelle in his arms, two things occurred to her simultaneously. Since right now, buying time was in everybody's interest, she decided to make them public.

"So now you're going to bleed my niece," she began, just barely managing to keep a crack out of her voice. "What exactly are you waiting for? Don't tell me you're getting squeamish now."

"In order for this to work properly, all three of your life-bloods must intermix just as the sun comes up," Sloane was maintaining his even tone to the last. "That's a considerable amount, and as you're well aware, a toddler has a lot less blood than a full-grown woman."

Even before two of the other thugs began moving towards her, she suddenly got the picture. "You're going to bleed me before you kill Isabelle," she realized.

"It takes a bit longer for the blood to flow out of a woman," Sloane responded, choosing not to answer. "I had to time this precisely in order for this to work."

Before Nadia could respond, she felt the muzzles of two pistols on her stomach.

"I'll have them make it quick," Sloane said. "I'm afraid that's all the kindness I can manage."

"Don't do me any favors, Sloane," Nadia said coldly. "Kind words aren't going to make this any less selfish."

Sloane brought the knife to bear.

5:36:22/5:36:23/5:36:24/5:36:25

Despite Nadia's estimate, there were more thugs on the boat than she had been allowed to see. One of them happened to be on the aft portion of the deck, staring aimlessly out into the black sea. He had been bored already, long simply staring out into the void, certain that anything fast enough to catch up to them, or cause the boat any sort of trouble, would be noisy enough to give him fair warning.

The last thing he noticed was the flash of a knife blade as it pierced his brain.

Jack Bauer twisted the knife into the man's temple, then jerked it out again, letting him fall to the deck as the APO agent leapt over the banister. He slipped his knife away and drew his gun, scanning the deck for anyone else. "Kim, Marshall, you're next."

The two of them came up as Jack moved quietly to one side, looking around the wall leading to the port side. He couldn't see anyone, but with the crates on deck, he couldn't be certain. He wheeled back, looking towards starboard, just in case someone came through at an inopportune time.

Kim was the first one up, and stepped to one side. A rope dangled from her belt down to the ship below, and she quickly worked on dragging the equipment up. Marshall quickly joined her. By the time Syd had reached the deck, the heartbeat monitor was already set up and running.

"Can you hear me?" Kim spoke into her comm.

"Copy."

"Copy."

Marshall stared at the screen and smiled. "We're up and running. It's just like in Rainbow Six. This is so cool," he whispered.

Sydney went port, and Jack starboard. Each of them were deathly silent as they moved along the deck, guns drawn, sound suppressors firmly attached to both barrels.

They both stared at the screen, the little blips representing their people moving forward. Kim stared hard at one piece of geography. "Syd, there's one right around the next crate, and another to your nine o'clock as you shoot him."

Sydney moved carefully along one crate, and spun, barely needing to aim before she pulled the trigger. She wheeled in towards the ship and snapped off another shot, killing the second man.

"Jack," Marshall whispered. "Eleven o'clock high, then twelve."

Jack sprinted out from behind the crate providing him covered, fired twice at the guard on the upper deck as he ran, then another double tap into the guard ahead of him.

"Okay, now there aren't any more heartbeats between you and the bow," Marshall said. "And there, we have about two, four, six heartbeats. One's really tiny, and all of them are beating strongly."

"Which means that Irina isn't on board anymore," Jack replied.

"Then there's one to hold each hostage," Syd whispered harshly, "and Sloane to cut them."

"I have an idea."

*

Nadia was fast coming to the conclusion that this was not going to be her day. She had spent her afternoon being stabbed and in surgery, and now her father was slowly carving her up like a turkey.

Which is ironic, she thought. We never really got around to celebrating Thanksgiving together, did we? Odd what occurs to you at times like this.

At which point, Jacobson yelled: "I have some movement about a mile off the starboard bow! Looks like a Coast Guard helicopter!"

"Take it out," Sloane said.

"They're not going to be in range for at least a minute—"

"I will not be stopped now." There was genuine anger in Sloane's voice at last, and Jacobson knew better to anger the invulnerable. He began to shift the weapon.

Before he could finish, there was gunfire. Only it came from the port side instead of the starboard. The helmsman fell to his knees.

Everyone's attention shifted to the starboard side, except for Sloane and Nadia.

"I knew it was a mistake to leave Sark alive," Sloane muttered. He motioned to the man on his left. "Take them out the second they're in range, Jacobson," he ordered.

Sloane tugged Nadia away from his man, holding her, and nodded for him to also grab a weapon. Arvin adjusted his grip. With her hands tied behind her back, he felt most secure holding her from behind, the knife at her throat.

At that point, everything happened at the same moment. Gunfire split the night air from the sky, and Jacobson and his compatriot tried to fire into the air.

*

From their location, Vaughn hadn't been able to see Sloane, which was probably a blessing as he was currently about as agitated as you could get without exploding.

"Can you tell how many people are on the boat?" he shouted to the co-pilot.

"Looks like five," came the reply, "but—" Suddenly he blinked. "Shit! One's of them targeting us with a rocket launcher!"

"Taking evasive maneuvers!" the pilot said.

The chopper was fast and the pilot was good, but it was hard to avoid a projectile of this size. They dodged the rocket, but it scratched their struts as it streamed past.

"He hit us in the tail!" the pilot shouted. "It's going to get hard to keep us up in the air!"

"Never mind keeping us up!" Vaughn shouted. "You get us as close to the ship as you can!"

*

In all the noise, five sound-suppressed shots coughed into the melee. One came from Sydney's gun, splitting through Jacobson's brain, and another came from Jack's weapon, dropping the second shooter.

Sydney's next bullet slammed into the brain of the man holding Isabelle. The next two bullets came from Jack's gun, knocking Sloane's man backwards, leaving his body to cushion Isabelle's fall.

Sloane jerked backwards, putting Nadia between him and the two agents. Isabelle started crying, already trying to crawl towards her mother. And with the slow-moving baby making her way across the deck, he saw his dreams move with her.

"Give it up, Sloane!" Jack roared. "You've nothing left to gain by doing something stupid."

Sloane smiled at Jack, his eyes as dark as coals. "This isn't over, Bauer. We both know this." He tugged Nadia backwards, the blade at her throat. He pressed it so the edge bit into her flesh, a line of blood running down her throat. "I have yet to hit the jugular or carotid, Jack, but we both know I can slit her throat and be over this railing without much trouble. The war with China will fulfill the prophecy, and all of your heroics will have been for nothing."

Jack's gaze didn't waver, and his weapon stayed level. Inside, his guts were wavering. Another woman he loved, again threatened, and ready to be slaughtered. He had meant everything he'd said to Dixon. There would be no way that he would allow Nadia to be harmed. No matter the cost. Losing Teri had almost killed him. Losing Nadia would destroy whatever was left of him.

"What if you took your virus, then leapt over the side, and leave Nadia with us?"

Arvin blinked, then he smiled, looking more than mildly deranged. If Nadia could see it, she would have known it from the moment right before an entire floor of glass had dropped out from underneath him. "You still have my virus?"

Bauer nodded.

"Do you believe that I would fall for that? That you would willingly give it to me."

"Think it through, Arvin. You're going to have to regroup, get more men and resources before you can try anything more."

Sloane shook his head. "And what, Agent Bauer, you would use it to distract me, then disarm me? I don't think that will work for me. Do you?"

Sydney spoke up from his other side, stepping slowly towards Isabelle. "What about Marshall? Would that work for you?"

Arvin cocked his head. "Why, yes, I think it would."

Sydney reached up with one hand to touch her comm. "Marshall, we need you up front."

*

Marshall gaped, stupefied at the prospect of giving Arvin Sloane a biological super weapon.

Kim grabbed Marshall and shook him, snapping him out of it. "Marshall, think. You can do this. All you need to do is walk from here to there, all right?"

"Then what?"

Kim frowned. "Then we'll think about it."

"That's not helping."

"Yeah, I know." She reached down, grabbed the case with the Rimbaldi virus-filled needle, then pressed it into Marshall's hands. "I'm just wondering what went wrong."

"What?"

Kim sighed, almost growled in frustration. "Go ahead. I'll explain."

Marshall nodded jerkily, then took off towards the bow.

"Remember how I mentioned that Rimbaldi was like Star Trek, almost testing us?"

"Mmmhmm," Marshall grunted, unable to run and talk at the same time.

"Let's say he was. He was seeing if the good guys could prevail over evil. He always gave us the weapons to disarm everything."

Marshall slowed down, unused to running so fast. He caught a few gulps of air. He may have been halfway up the ship. "And?"

"He hasn't given us anything."

"True. Gotta run, Kim."

Kim Bauer waited, stewing over the problem, until she saw Marshall's heartbeat reach her father's.

Marshall slowly moved past Jack, taking slow, and timid steps towards Arvin Sloane.

"Give it to me, Marshall, and I won't have to kill anyone," Sloane said in a voice he thought was reassuring. "Give it to me, now."

Kim blinked. "No, that's not..." She touched her comm. "Marshall, remember your son's toy this morning. It was on a dartboard. Bullseye on the dartboard."

"Mmmmm-HHMMM," Marshall grunted, hoping it sounded like he was out of breath.

"Throw the dart!"

Marshall's mind caught up to Kim's in a split-second as all of the pieces clicked together. He reached into the case slowly, his fingers trembling as he did so. He carefully grabbed the syringe full of virus, and brought it up. "This is yours," Marshall said, his voice quavering.

"Yes, Marshall. That's good. Now, give, it, to, me."

Flinkman nodded slowly, taking into account the wind, the distance, room to maneuver, and what part of the dartboard to hit.

And then, Marshall Flinkman threw the syringe like a dart into Arvin Sloane's right leg.

Sloane flinched. The knife was held in his right hand, the hand that came down to pull out the dart from his leg.

There was no time to consider the ramifications. No time to think about it, period. Nadia, not even hesitating, brought her knee up to her hip height, looked down, and then drove her foot backwards, into the plunger.

Agent Santos snapped her head backwards, into her father's nose, then dove forward and rolled away from him.

Sloane stood there a moment, his face astonished, and then smug again. "You made it away from me, very good. But it changes nothing." He back away towards the rail, and then blinked as his legs gave out from under him. He grabbed the rail, desperately holding onto it. He reached up to his nostril, and came away with blood on his fingers.

"No... this...can't be. Rimbaldi..."

"Had a failsafe," Marshall said. "He always gave us ways to diffuse plots he started." He smiled, a flicker across his lips that was uncertain whether it should even start. "He usually wrote everything out, but in this case, we already had all the tools. Including a virus that will be designed to specifically kill one person when mixed with his DNA."

"A weapon wielded by a Chosen One," Sydney said, realization dawning.

Sloane's eyes widened, his features lost at the prospect that Rimbaldi, his own obsession, had betrayed him. "But... I had a destiny."

Arvin blinked a few more times.

Nadia had seen some pretty incredible things involving Rimbaldi, but not even she was prepared for what happened next. Sloane took one last huge intake of breath, and then his skin went pale. Not white, translucent. For a few seconds, she could see all of his organs and muscle and blood and bone

Then it faded and suddenly his skin was burning, she could practically smell roasting meat.

Then that was over and his skin began to simultaneously decompose and putrefy. His entire body began to sink into itself.

Less than thirty seconds after she had injected him with it, Arvin Sloane was nothing more than an evaporating puddle of liquid.

Nadia went so still that she didn't register the sounds of the helicopter hitting the water or another motorboat pulling up alongside.

Despite the comfort of holding her daughter, she wasn't prepared for what was in the water.

Irina Derevko was dead.

*

Jack knelt down to Nadia's side, ignoring the bodies and carnage around them.

"He's dead," Nadia said numbly. "Nothing but remains," she said dully.

And then she let out a scream of pain that Jack would never forget.

5:53:37/5:53:38/5:53:39/5:53:40

Kim made it to the bow, and said to Marshall, "When he said to give it to him, I thought it was a good idea." She looked over the remains. "So that's it? This was the last stand of Arvin Sloane? The apocalypse has been averted?"

Marshall nodded towards the sun. "Sun's rising. The world is still standing…Isn't it?"

"Dixon's on the phone with the President. He thinks if we can produce evidence Sloane is dead, given the circumstances, the Chinese will be willing to arbitrate."

Marshall blinked. "What circumstances?"

"Yesterday was a bad day for us, but the Chinese were guilty of failings far worse. Working through our diplomats, the President managed to shore up support with a majority of the delegations at the UN."

"When did this happen?"

"A few minutes ago."

Marshall nodded. "So Sloane could never have pulled off Armageddon after all."

"Knowing everything we do about Sloane, do you think he would have let any of that stand in his way?"

Marshall paused. "Honestly? I don't want to think about it anymore. All I want is to go home, kiss my wife, hug my kids, and count myself lucky."

"I get that," Kim said with a smile.

Sydney and Vaughn were carefully handing Isabelle up to the men on the first Coast Guard vessel.

Sydney was climbing up, when she stopped mid-rung.

"Syd?"

"It just hit me for the first time," Sydney said in a chilled voice. "Both my parents are dead. Gone… forever."

Sydney was beginning to shake. She was not crying, but it was only a matter of time. Vaughn acted fast and pulled her up the rest of the way. "I know, I know—"

"It's not enough." Syd managed to say. "I don't care if we saved the world. I don't care if Sloane's gone. All I want—is another five minutes—with my father—"

Vaughn, who had had similar wishes many times over the years, could only nod..

"What am I supposed to do now?" Sydney shouted at the heavens. "Go back to work, chasing the next threat, whatever new boogeyman is haunting us?"

"You don't have to," Vaughn said. "You got Sloane, you lost your parents. All debts you had with agency are paid. Say the word, and we can move to that island tomorrow."

Sydney turned to her husband. "Seriously?"

"I wouldn't joke about this," Vaughn said. "But right now, what we all need is to rest. To go home, love our daughter, honor the dead, and find a place in the world that doesn't involve so much pain."

For a moment, Syd stopped. "When did you get so poetic?"

"Taught English once, remember?"

And even though that memory was part of an especially painful moment, they both smiled a little.

"You should talk to Nadia," Vaughn said. "You're going to need each other."

"I will," Sydney promised. "but… some pain you have to handle on your own."

"You sure about this?" Jack said into his cell.

"We found the pilot of your chopper out cold on the dock," Dixon told him.

"We chained Sark to the struts!"

"He's gone, and so is your helicopter." Dixon asked.. "I've already got the search teams looking."

Jack was looking at Nadia. "Leave it for now. Sark has his deal. He'll wait." Jack then hung up, and walked back over to Nadia.

"We can go now."

Nadia kept her eyes on the ever-brightening horizon. "My parents both died here," she reminded him.

"I know."

"I killed my father." Nadia added. "And it's not like either of them ever loved me...So why can't I just walk away?

Jack touched her arms, and rubbed them. "Because you have the compassion that neither of them possessed. Because whatever sins our parents commit, they're family."

"Sydney is family, too. Her father is dead because of mine. Could you forgive?"

"She knows what a monster Sloane was," Jack assured her. "And if there was any way for her to take the pain that you're feeling, she'd do it. So would I."

"Are we going to have to take this boat in?"

"Eventually."

"Do me a favor," she said. "When they're done with it, have them burn it down, and soak the ashes in lye. I don't want a bit of him to remain anywhere."

Under other circumstance Jack might have been alarmed at her coldness. The truth was, he wanted to do the same thing. "I'll see to it."

Nadia walked towards the deck. "Let's go," she said. "Far, far away."

Neither of looked back at Sloane's remains, even as they continue to evaporate in the last of the morning sun.

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