The Perfect Weapon Ending 1 Chapter 1002: Part 3 section 1 of 4
Ending 1 Chapter 1002 Part 3 section 1 of 4
“Mem, Mem,” a house maid called out as she tapped on the closed bedroom door. “Mem! Please open!”
She looked up, noting without much interest the shock still on her face as she saw it in the mirrors of her closet. “It’s...” She stopped when she realized her voice was a mere thread of sound. Swallowed. “It’s unlocked, Nia,” she said more loudly, amazed that she could even remember the name of this new maid her house steward had hired recently.
The door opened slowly and Nia peered around the edge of the door. Bowing slightly from the waist, she said softly as she looked up through her lashes, “A thousand pardons to disturb you, Mem,” she said in heavily-accented English, English being the language of the house. “But there is someone here to see you.”
“Nia, you are dragging dirt into the house,” she said, but without any heat. Did the dust really matter any more?
“Sorry, Mem. I will clean it up in moment. This man at door - He apologizes for the in....intrusion, but--”
Her head snapped up, her mind snapped to attention. “He apologizes....” And the timing...so precise...
“Yes, Mem,” Nia said, her eyes suddenly sharp, but in the next instant they were merely her normal soft brown and Irina thought it merely a trick of her...tiredness. Yes, she was tired. This had been too much, even for Jack. He would have to do more than merely apologize this time. “Show him in, please.”
As Nia closed the door, and with a brisk stride heretofore unseen in her, began walking toward the main entrance to the estate. Bringing her hand to her mouth, she spoke into a ring and said in perfect English with a light British accent, “Next phase will begin in approximately four minutes. Out.”
“Excellent. Dolly.”
“Quite amusing. Old man.”
“Sydney,” Jack had begun, feeling the sting of his daughter’s denial of reality, feeling once again the pain of, however unjustified it might be, feeling that he could do nothing right. “I would like you to do me the same favor you did for Derevko. I would like you to do for me what you wanted me to do for her. Give me the benefit of the doubt as I explain to you what is going to happen. It will happen with or without your approval,” he said firmly, stiffly. “Nonetheless,” he softened, and touched her hand as they sat alone together in Kendall’s office. “I would rather that we were on the same page, that we were working together. Will you listen to me? Will you listen to my plan? The entire plan?”
She nodded. “Yes. I...” Deciding to avoid the emotional for a moment more, she concentrated on the technical. “What have you had Marshall working on so diligently for weeks now?”
“A new kind of passive transmitter.”
“I need help, Marshall.” There he had said it. And survived.
“Sure, what can I do for you? Jack, Mr. Bristow? You’d think after all this time I’d know what to call you, but I still don’t and maybe I should just ask you what you’d prefer.”
“As long as it’s not Yoda, I can live with it.”
“Heh. Wait - that was a joke, right? Because I wouldn’t want to laugh at your jokes if they weren’t jokes because -“
“Marshall, relax. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Whew, that’s a relief. I mean not that I thought you would. I mean we’re on the same side and all. Not that I do anything like what you do in the field - although I did save Sydney that one time-“
“Yes, yes, you did, Marshall. I don’t believe I ever expressed my gratitude for that. But...Thank you. Now, though, I need a certain kind of transmitter. A new kind. I thought of it on the way back home from Panama. I hope you’ll be able to build it for me.”
“If I build it, they will come?”
“If you build it, we will go right where we need to and reel her in.”
She nodded. “I...know we have to bring her in, Dad. I know. I wanted to do it when I skated toward her on that ice rink, but then she told me how she felt...”
“She’s good at knocking people over on ice rinks and telling them of her feelings,” Jack said lightly. Another pattern.
Through sheer effort of will, Jack had controlled the urge to leap from his chair, find that woman and strangle her with his bare hands for contacting Sydney, for dragging Sydney into this mess again, as the team debriefed Sydney on her ice rink encounter with Derevko.
“Let me understand this,” Jack said softly, very softly. “She said - and you remember this very clearly, ‘When the time came for me to leave it was painful. Because my love for you, for your father, was not a contrivance’? That’s what she said? That it was painful?”
“Yes. Dad. I...I don’t understand-“ Why did her father look so enraged? Why was he displaying his feelings? Was that a good thing or a bad thing? If he hid them, she could ignore them. If he showed his feelings, she had to pay attention and---
Marshall dove in. “Sydney, I think, if you don’t mind my interrupting what’s kinda a family moment, but since your mom is Irina Derevko, number 6 on our most wanted list, it’s also kinda a national security moment, or maybe even international security if you want to be precise and I’d still like to know how she arranged for Vaughn’s phone to ring and get him into the office on that bogus errand because whew! Good job. But-“
“What is it, Marshall?” Everyone chorused.
“I guess, my guess, would be that what might be, might be - I’m just conjecturing here since hey, I’ve never even been married, barely dated if the truth be known until-“ He turned slightly red and avoided looking at Carrie. He took a breath and continued,“So, I can’t imagine what it feels like to have your international terrorist wife tell your daughter that she loves you right before knocking that daughter out with an elbow to the temple---”
Vaughn interrupted, looking down for a moment, hesitating, but then dove in, determined to do the right thing, even if he paid for it later. “What he’s asking, eventually, is...Her leaving was painful. BUT....Painful for whom?”
When Sydney did not answer, Jack asked gently, swallowing his anger for the moment, “Sydney, did she apologize for her actions? Did she acknowledge that she might have caused you pain with her reentry into your life, her deliberate attempts to win our trust so that she could steal from us, always knowing she intended to leave again? Pain...”
“Painful for whom, Syd?” Weiss asked softly. “She was talking about the pain she chose to create for herself.”
“I agree,” Kendall said in his brusque fashion, causing Jack to groan. “Pardon me, if I’m not too sympathetic to HER pain.”
Stricken, knowing they were all right, but not yet willing to face it, Sydney walked from the room. Jack glared at Vaughn and jerked his head in the direction of the door. Vaughn vaulted to his feet and set off at a fast clip down the hallway and found Sydney eventually in the hallway outside what had been Derevko’s cell. “Syd...” he said softly, touching her lightly on the back.
When she said nothing, just screwed up her face and appeared to be concentrating on something else, he waited. Finally, he asked, “What are you remembering?”
“I’m remembering this one time....I did something really bad and my dad really yelled at me. I mean, really yelled at me like he had never done before in my entire life-“
“What, did he come home and found you making out on the couch with your boyfriend?”
“No.” She grimaced. “Then he just gave the guy a look and-“
“Let me guess. You never heard from him again?” He knew the desire. But luckily he was a little more mature than that. He guessed. Or stupid.
“Yeah. Guess you’ve gotten the look too?” Sydney asked, looking at him for the first time.
“Kinda.”
“Well, you’ve stuck around. You get points for that,” she said softly, and kissed his cheek.
“Well, if you can’t stand a glare from Jack.... So, anyway, what did you do? That netted you so much trouble when you were a kid?”
“Oh, I jumped off the roof of our house. When I was about six.” She said it nonchalantly, Vaughn thought incredulously, as if every six-year old girl was out jumping off of roofs. No doubt it had been some...game!
“You what....?”
“It was no big deal. Just a game.” She shrugged. Then smiled. “Daddy caught me, of course.”
“Of....course. Let me guess, it was a two story house.” No wonder the man had gone prematurely silver.
“But he told me....He told me - he slapped my butt! I remember now, he actually slapped my butt!” She laughed. “The one and only time-“
“Well, that explains a lot,” Vaughn muttered to himself.
“Shut up. He said something like, ‘ You have to accept that if you hurt someone, they deserve an apology and you deserve to feel badly for a while. It’s not fun, but that’s the way it goes.’ He also said an apology without changing your behavior is meaningless. And....my mother was there..., although I don’t remember her so much. Just how upset Daddy was. But..she was there...”
“She was?”
“Yeah. It was...actually it seems like it was right before she left.”
“It was,” Jack said quietly as he joined them. “One personality trait, among many, that Laura and Irina share is not only stubbornness, but too much pride. She always hated to apologize. She would say-“
“I should apologize. That’s what she would say. But...” She looked at her father. “She didn’t even say that, did she? Not to me. Not to Vaughn. Not even...to you? Not even in....Panama that night?”
“No. She did not.”
“My kingdom for an apology?” Sydney asked in a watery voice.
“Something like that.”
Sydney touched her father’s hand. “I know she needs to be brought in. That was my intent in Mexico City, but....I’m sorry.”
“I know. You couldn’t bring yourself to shoot her and possibly send her falling to her death.” Which is why, Sydney should have never been on this taskforce. Which is why, he thought with fury, Vaughn should have been up there on that rooftop taking that shot. As, damn it! He had told Vaughn. How hard was it to follow simple orders? He would deal with Pretty Boy shortly.
“No. And now..if we bring her in...She’ll be eligible for the death penalty again. And as much as, if it were some other criminal, Sloane, whomever, I would say that it’s justified, it’s the price of their crimes...I still can’t deal with...” Her eyes filled with tears.
“I know. That is why....I called in some favors to ensure that she won’t get the death penalty,” Jack said slowly, willing her to listen, truly hear what he was saying.
“What?” She asked, staring at him, hope beginning to dawn in her eyes.
He repeated his answer. She stared at him for a long moment, then let out a deep breath before asking, “How many favors? How many of your favors? How many of even your favors were necessary to take a criminal of her stature off of death row?”
“Enough,” he said succinctly.
“Big favors?” She asked haltingly, beginning to imagine the price on the life of an international terrorist like Irina Derevko.
“Yes. And some dealing. And some blackmail.”
“Blackmail?”
“Yes. Senator Douglas. Remember your little stint as his chauffeur? I had to cover your a- , butt on that since there was no senator to hand over to his committee once SD-6 came down---”
“I screwed up on that, didn’t I?” She admitted.
“Sydney, I love you. I think you are as perfect a daughter as a man could have. And a genius in the field. But...in the future, leave the game strategy to me, okay?”
She nodded. He waited, and sure enough, there was the click for which he’d been waiting. “Because....if you have enough favors to call in on that committee, you wouldn’t have stayed in prison for long, would you?”
“No. I wasn’t jailed under the Patriot Act, so I retained all the normal rights and therefore I could have called in some of my favors.”
“Dad...You made a deal with that committee now, didn’t you? You gave up years of acquiring favors, blackmail opportunities...For her?”
“No. You forget Madagascar. Not for her. For you.”
Sydney stared at her father for a long moment. He just watched and waited. Suddenly, it occurred to her that her father was good at waiting. He seemed to wait for her to do...something so often. This time... She whispered, “Thank you, Daddy.” He relaxed and nodded. She swallowed hard and asked, “How close are you to finding her? The team has made a lot of progress since you gave them--”
Jack had looked at the team gathered around the table. “I realize that we are also seeking Arvin Sloane, the whereabouts of the Rambaldi artifacts, the identity of the second clone, and...” He had paused, musing that it still seemed impossible to him that Tippin might be the clone, but...
“Why not the cure for the common cold while we’re at it?” Weiss mumbled.
“Or the answer as to why the line you get in at the supermarket or the bank always ends up being the longest?” Marshall began. “I mean, there has to be some law of averages that should apply. Or is just that our perception of reality is affected by our level of frustration? Or---”
“Yes, Marshall! Our perception of reality is affected by our frustration level, I can assure you,” Jack said, resisting the urge to grind his teeth. He exhaled loudly. “As I was saying when the peanut gallery of junior agents felt the need to interject unnecessary commentary, I believe one of our primary considerations has to be Derevko’s capture. And I have developed a plan.”
Everyone sat up. “What?” Weiss asked to no one in particular. What in the world was going on? Jack had a plan. Well, of course, Jack had a plan. He probably had a plan when he went to the supermarket that ensured he was never in the wrong line. But what in the world did Jack buy at the supermarket, anyway? Jack ate?
“Of course, Jack eats, you fool,” Vaughn whispered and watched Weiss whiten as he realized he had just spoken aloud.
“Well.. Jack tells us he has a plan? What’s next?” Weiss whispered to Vaughn. “Jack will tell us the plan?”
Kendall also stood. “Yes, Jack has a plan. And for once, assuming he has told me everything this time--”
“I have,” Jack said firmly, although he rolled his eyes.
“I fully support, without any hesitation, the operation. Which will begin as soon as we leave this room with our assignments.”
Weiss asked, “How long do you estimate for completion of this op?”
Jack tapped his fingers on the desk. “Depends upon the...distraction of the other problems confronting us. And the speed with which we can do the research.”
Everyone groaned. Vaughn mumbled, “Let me guess---”
“There is no substitute for exhaustive background research,” everyone chorused.
“Gee, Jack, they do listen to you on occasion,” Kendall noted.
“I know. My heart is all aflutter with the excitement,” Jack quipped. Then shrugged when everyone looked at him with surprise. Except Sydney, whose brow was creased, whose face was wearing that look she wore when some memory was teasing the edges of her mind. He sighed, she was probably remembering hearing his smartass comments from her childhood before Laura died. No wonder she had such a mouth on her, he sighed again. She looked at him, nodded. He nodded in return.
“What’s the name of this op?” Sydney asked.
“Operation Perfect Weapon.”
As she waited for Nia to return with the visitor, who had to be, had to be, Jack, she put the box in her hands on the bureau and stared at it. Then with a quick flick of her wrist, she snapped the lid shut. She didn’t need to look at that again. Jack would pay for that, for giving into his quick temper. Well, she thought with a wan smile, he always did like paying for it. What was it he always used to say, oh yeah, ‘I live in hope, honey, I live in hope.’ Walking over to her mirrored closet doors, she smoothed her hair down, bit her lips and pinched her cheeks to bring some color into them...they had looked bloodless before. Taking a deep breath, she told herself that the waiting was almost over. He had done what he was supposed to do: play the chase game. He had found her. The only question, and they could discuss this over - she looked at her watch - dinner, the only question was how he had found her here.
Jack had told Sydney, “We are very close to finding her. Or rather, her...favorite home. Her...safe haven. Everyone has a special place. We’re getting closer every day. We were unfortunately distracted by the cloning business, that Di Regno heart that Derevko and Sloane wanted so badly... “ Too bad, he thought, the only way they could find a heart was by having it ripped out of someone else’s chest, isn’t it? I mean that’s carrying the Tin Man analogy a bit far, don’t you think, Derevko? he thought snidely. Hmm. And who was Sloane? The man behind the curtain? Ha. No wonder he’d wanted to stay behind in Munchkinland - at least he was the tallest one there.
“Distracted!” Sydney protested, “Sloane kidnapped you, had you tied to that table with an iv in your arm and what was he going to do if we hadn’t found you, if Sark had not given us the information---?” She shuddered. “You looked so....”
“I was there, sweetheart. But I’m back. You’re back. But now, we’re back on track. We’ll get Sloane eventually. And we’re very close to finding her favorite place. I can feel it. The team has done a superlative job.”
“I’m still surprised that---”
“When you’re playing for these stakes you have to utilize every advantage. And one advantage I have is...our team. Dedicated. Idiots, half of them. But dedicated, hard-working idiots.”
“Dad, you’re not fooling me,” Sydney said, shaking her head.
“No?”
“I remember...Mom used to call you an idiot, but she that was her little...endearment, wasn’t it?”
“You remember that? Of all the things to remember, you remember that?”
“Didn’t you say once, that the brain remembers what is important?”
“Did I?”
“Oh, stop it,” she said laughing and slapped at his hand. Wondered why he looked surprised when she did that. “I know you trust and appreciate everyone working on this project. Or you wouldn’t have brought it to the team, you would have done it on your own.”
“But Sydney,” he said in mock indignation. “I’m shocked. Simply shocked. That you would intimate that I am not a team player.”
“You’re a team player only when it suits your purposes, Dad. Just like...” She frowned, coming to a startling realization.
“You?”
“Dad...” Sydney asked slowly as everyone digested the name of the op. “You have a plan to find her and bring her in?” He nodded. “And you are involving the team, not doing it on your own? I don’t mean to sound...or be difficult, but you’ve never---”
“No. I haven’t,” Jack admitted. “But a...wise person knows when to ask for help. I cannot do this on my own. Not in the time frame I would prefer. So, here is where we will start. I have an idea in mind that will result in her movement to one of her strongholds. So, we need to ---”
Weiss whispered, “He’s telling us the plan, he’s telling us the plan?”
Vaughn rolled his eyes, whispered back, “Yeah, right. On a need to know basis only. Watch...“ He took a breath, “So, Jack what ‘s the idea, what’s the bait?”
“Later,” Jack clipped out in an irritated tone. Vaughn nodded and poked Weiss. Jack looked at Kendall and asked sotte voce, “When did I lose control of this meeting?”
“When you started to act like a human being,” Kendall retorted.
“Well, then in the interests of efficiency, I suppose I should turn the rest of the meeting over to you, shouldn’t I?” Jack said with a smile.
“Are you mocking me? Again?” Kendall asked, putting his fist on one hip.
“I tire of your questions when the answer is obvious.” Jack sighed and rolled his eyes. “Now then, “ he said loudly, “One step at a time. For now we need to find the locations. Now, each of you will be assigned a certain segment of --”
“Wait... Real estate records are normally local transactions, we can’t possibly locate--” Marshall protested.
“I have narrowed the fields of inquiry, based upon Derevko’s known preferences-“
“Known preferences?” Kendall said snidely to Jack, unable to resist the opportunity to poke, “I see nothing in her profile that would indicate-“
“Kendall. I know her preferences,” Jack hissed.
“But still," Kendall said quietly, "And I don’t mean to be disrespectful of your...abilities, Jack, but the woman you knew as your wife might be completely different than Derevko, she might have different preferences and-“
“Her...preferences have not changed.”
“But....”
“Her preferences have not changed. In any way, shape or form on any topic,” Jack said in a soft growl. He stared at Kendall, then flicked his eyes in Sydney’s direction. Kendall’s mouth opened into a perfect circle and he closed it abruptly. “Take my word for it, I know her. Her homes will be in warm climates with certain conditions, as indicated on these sheets.” He began passing them out. “Possibly in an area underserved by modern technology except for computer access. In her line of work, the only way to get away from it all, to be truly safe, is to be isolated in an area in which every stranger is automatically a suspect. I have prepared a list of possibilities and a list of my local contacts in each area who can prove useful. You may have your own contacts, use whatever means necessary. Dixon and Weiss, you’ll handle the Mediterranean and northern Africa. Sydney and Carrie, you’ll take the Caribbean and Central America. Vaughn, Marshall and I will take the Asian subcontinent.”
“Why not southern African and South America?”
“Oh, that’s for Kendall, here.”
“What!” Kendall expostulated.
Jack smiled. “You said -- and I believe everyone here heard you -- you would fully support, without hesitation, this operation as long as---”
Marshall raised his index finger, “Yes, I heard that!”
Kendall turned to glare at Marshall, then swivelled back to Jack, “But I didn’t mean--”
“But you did not specifically exclude yourself from---”
“Alright, already! You should have been a lawyer. Give me a damn sheet!”
Sydney whispered to Vaughn as the men continued arguing, “He thinks what he’s looking for is in the Asian subcontinent. And he wants you to help him and not me.”
“That’s because....” He sighed. “Syd, he doesn’t want you in on bringing you mother down.” She frowned. He sighed again, “And I have contacts in India and Pakistan, remember?” He rolled his eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest, crossed her legs and looked down at her laptop. Pouting was not an attractive trait in a grown woman.
Dixon shook his head. “But we’ve been looking for months for her strongholds and haven’t found anything under any of her admitted aliases or any holding company or-“
“I discovered in Panama that we were looking using the wrong...doorkeys to find her properties,” Jack told them. “Or at least the properties we need to seek for this op. We have a new alias to try.”
“We were using the wrong alias? How did you learn that?” Marshall asked. Jack gave him a look. “Oh, okay. Um, so what’s the alias she might have used for real estate transactions?”
“Laura Bristow. Or rather, a coded version of that name.” He pressed a tab on the Power Point and a twelve letter code appeared beneath the name. “She told me, inadvertently, that she had used Laura Bristow for cash transactions, hotels, restaurants and real estate---”
“Why would she do that?” Vaughn asked. “That makes no sense - you, the CIA... it’s just a miracle that name never came up.”
“They were cash transactions. Credit causes a paper trail. Not cash.”
“But real estate...” Vaughn pressed.
“That’s when she used this coded version, is my hunch. That code would mean nothing, nothing to anyone except me and I would have had to have been looking for it. Which I wasn’t since I thought she was dead. So it was perfectly safe to use the code,” Jack explained. Shut up, Vaughn. He didn’t want to explain, yet anyway, that he thought she had deliberately done so in the unconscious hopes that he would find her. The damn chase game.
“What code system is that?” Marshall asked, pointing at the screen. “I don’t think I’ve seen it before. It’s a little old-fashioned.”
“That’s because it’s older than Sydney. It’s the code my wife and I, largely she - she was always the better encryptor -” He rolled his eyes and gave a small smile, that was really no smile at all, Sydney thought as he continued, “We developed the code for private research, private reasons.”
Sydney watched her father closely, wondering if he felt any embarrassment at discussing his life with Laura, Irina, whatever. He looked fine, but... Maybe she should ask him later?
“Wait,” Kendall called out, holding up a hand. “If I remember reading your personnel files, isn’t that the code, the encryption that led to...oh, sh*t, that was the coding that led, in large part, to the Agency’s suspicion of you, your incarceration. Wasn’t it? That same code?”
Irina twisted her hands together as she waited. Wondered, had he found her using her email accounts? The addresses she had provided when she turned herself in that she had kept operational, in the hopes.... She had been certain they were completely secure, but....Well, did it matter?
Hadn’t she been ecstatic when she had first seen his email with the subject listed as “Idiot”? She had smiled as she opened the email message. Finally. He had given in, swallowed his pride. Ha. He called her stubborn, she thought, as she absently decrypted the message. ‘Honey. I am hoping by now that you have forgiven me for the passive transmitter. I should apologize. But I won’t. Jack.’
That little smartass, she had thought as she broke into pleased laughter. Smiled again as she realized belatedly, having decrypted it without conscious thought, that it was their old encryption method. How sweet of him to use that, he must have forgiven her for using it to frame him. It was just like the old days, when they left each other notes in the code. She had thought for a time that visiting him while he was restrained in Mexico City had been a poor step in their game. But it was after that visit that he had begun emailing her. In their own code.
“So the code is just one...method,” Sydney said, trying to understand this new idea, this notion that she and her father shared more than...the fact that their ears stuck out a little. Or that tiny, almost inconsequential, vindictive streak. Or...loyalty to those they loved? But now she needed to concentrate everything she had on his game plan. Wished she had paid more attention to her father’s strategies over the years. Wished her brain worked like his did. Wished...this would just end.
“Yes. Just one form of bait---”
“Just one?”
“Yes. The code will go a long way to softening up the target. But it’s just one among other...options. Multiple modes of attack are always best. And that code is a...bloodless measure.” And oh, so symmetrical.
“Reading my files in your spare time, Kendall? Perhaps you need a life.” The two men glared at each other. Jack finally admitted, “Yes, that’s the code. That was how my wife and I communicated privately, in notes, as spouses do, as anyone does. Pick up bread, milk. Review the files on regressive therapy in accessing memories of subjects... Just the usual.”
Weiss poked Vaughn, “Was that a JOKE?”
“Yessss. See how his eyebrows go up a little? Shut up or we’re gonna get in trouble, you fool,” Vaughn hissed back.
“Vaughn, Weiss, if you can’t pay attention in class, perhaps you’d like to stay after and...clap the erasers?” Jack asked. “And yes, Weiss, that was a joke. Perhaps you’d like to go back to elementary spy school and learn how to, oh I don’t know, WHISPER?”
A muffled snort came from the doorway. Everyone looked over to see Devlin standing there. “Don’t mind me. I’m just watching my top agents in action. It’s an education.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “If these are your top agents, no wonder the world’s gone to hell in bread basket. Or is that a rack of eclairs, gentlemen?” he asked with a look at Weiss.
Weiss blanched. How much did Jack know? And if he knew, why was he still alive? More to the point, why was Vaughn still alive? Looking over at Vaughn and Sydney who had both gone white, he sighed. Well, at least he wasn’t the only one sweating it out.
Jack cleared his throat. “Back on topic, if Vaughn and Weiss are done trading baseball cards or conversational dating gambits, can we get back on track? The code? Yes, Kendall was correct.” He paused, grimaced. Kendall laughed softly. “That coding, in both our handwritings, was also found on my private Project Christmas files, which Derevko admitted to me was a frame up--”
“In Panama?” Marshall asked. “When you...um...planted that transmitter....”
“Marshall, will you please stop fixating on Panama and that transmitter?” Jack asked impatiently.
“Yeah,” Kendall said for Jack’s ears alone as he leaned toward him. “Yeah, Panama was no big deal, was it? Just one more seduction and snatch, wasn’t it, Bristow? And given your illustrious record in that...field of endeavor---”
“Are you bringing this up because you need some...pointers? If so, make an appointment. I’ll check my Daytimer. If not, let’s move this along, why don’t we?” Jack snarled under his breath, sending a frozen glare at Kendall, growing impatient at the delay. They could be doing research already if everyone would just keep focused today! And no, it had not been a big deal, she had even made the first move, he thought with an internal chuckle, wondering if that had occurred to her yet. Unaware that a cold smile had crossed his face, he finally became aware that everyone was silent, waiting, sitting up straight.
“If everyone is focused again, the point here is not my past, but rather the future. And how we’ll use the code to find her.” He pressed the button and a second screen showing a different encryption appeared.
Marshall nodded almost immediately and commented, “The mirror version...because....?”
“My wife always had a fondness for mirrors.” Until Panama, anyway. And she didn’t yet know just how much she might come to hate mirrors later.
“But...” Vaughn began, beginning to sense the trap even though it was not meant for him. “Why would she do that? Use this code known just to you two, use that alias, your name?” And then he thought, that was why. The connection between the two of them, so strong you could feel it across the room, she had wanted that connection. Jack was going to use that connection. That desire for that connection....He knew it, knew it, as he remembered that moment when she had reached out to touch Jack’s hair in that plane on the way home from India, that look on her face that had shocked him before he raised his gun. She had loved Jack. In her own way. Inadequate way. She had loved him then. And left. She still loved him. And left. She had done it once. Twice. She would undoubtedly do it again if given the opportunity because ---
“People have patterns. Unless something extraordinary occurs, unless the person makes an extraordinary effort... people fall into familiar patterns because they seem to suit their purposes, even when they’re self-destructive circles. Patterns. It’s usually the way, the best way, to nab criminals. You know that. You all know that. Basic law enforcement procedure is to not only identify means and motive, but to identify the modus operandi and...I shouldn’t need to explain this -- petty thief or international crime leaders or playground bullies all have patterns. You just need to identify and exploit the m.o. and their weaknesses. But that’s why I believe she used this alias, in one of these two codes, for her real estate transactions, or rather, some of them.”
He stopped at the look on Vaughn’s face, the boy was thinking too hard, he sighed. “For her personal property, not her business investments. Probably the homes to which she has an attachment. Believe it or not, the notion of home, the reality of a home was important to her.” She probably has a freakin’ glider on a porch at one of those homes, he thought to himself. And then he thought ‘freakin’‘? He needed to find friends closer to home of his own age or who knew what else might happen to his vocabulary skills?
Holy sh*t, Vaughn thought, gripping his knees hard and looking down as he thought. Jack was going to use the code they had created for their personal games, the code she had employed to frame Jack, to find her. Then he was going to---- He looked up with a snap of his head and caught Jack’s eye. ‘Later,” Jack mouthed. Vaughn nodded.
Sydney sitting next to him, stared at the interplay and hissed, while glaring at her father, “Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” Why didn’t she know what was going on? Why wasn’t her father telling her? She was his daughter, for crying out loud. She should know first. Why was she always feeling like the tail end?
“It’s a mirror play. Symmetry,” Vaughn said softly.
“Are you done?” Kendall growled at them. They nodded. “Good, let’s get back to this op, you two. This isn’t Nice and there’s no SD-6, so you don’t need to involve national security in your dinner plans.”
Jack’s mouth twisted as he tried to avoid laughing. “Okay, everyone’s copied down the two versions of the codes? Has their assignments? Good. Thank you. Let’s go.”
Jack sighed as he watched Sydney flounce out of the room as the meeting ended. Just like Laura, she could certainly flounce with the best of them. He had done something wrong, what it was... He sighed again as Vaughn sat down next to him. And now, great, Vaughn was going to tell him what he had done wrong, he just knew it. He gave a grimace in Devlin’s direction, as the man slid out of the room.
Hmm, Vaughn thought, Jack must be truly distracted, he wasn’t even tapping that damn pencil. “So, Jack....”
“Just spit it out. What did I do wrong?”
“Well. Maybe in the future, you might consider filling Sydney in on your game before anyone else? Before she hears about it in a meeting?”
Jack sighed. Sighed again. Finally said, “You’re right.”
“WHAT? What did you say?” Vaughn practically shouted. Jack winced. And geez, how many wrinkles could the kid get on his forehead at one time?
“You’re right. You heard me the first time.”
“I thought I was hallucinating.”
“Why don’t you call Barnett about that sort of disorder? Now, get to work.” When Vaughn did not move, Jack slowly pulled a pencil out and began tapping it. The younger man quickly got up, straightened his tie and left the room. Jack stopped tapping the pencil and stared at it briefly before putting it away. Ha, the simplest games were always the best.
He looked up as Devlin did his best imitation of an agent and tried to surreptitiously reenter the room. “Devlin, what were you doing here?” Jack asked as he closed his laptop.
“When you actually inform me of your plans ahead of time and I get no less than five phone calls from senators on the Intelligence Committee, it makes me curious, Jack. I wanted to see how you’d begin to implement these plans that you expended so many of your resources upon. And that was an interesting meeting.”
“That was a mess. A semi-controlled mess but a mess,” Jack shrugged as he picked up his materials and began to walk toward the door and Devlin.
“But...it came together the way you planned in the end. And the process? Your group jelled together. Got motivated. Felt a personal connection to the team leader. You."
"Kendall has operational authority in this office."
"Yeah, Jack. Sure. As I was saying, the team and its leader -- you -- now have a good rapport thanks to the give and take of the meeting. That was good team-building. As you KNOW. That’s why you allowed it to go on. As I remember, that was how you ran meetings, planning sessions. Before...”
“Before Derevko. Before I...changed?” Jack asked calmly as he opened the door.
“Yes. You were an excellent leader then. It’s good to have you back.” Devlin slapped Jack on the back and walked out. Turning around, he commented, “Oh, wait - I meant to ask. What are you doing with that pencil with young Vaughn? Are you running one of those little...games you and Dave used to....”
“Who? Me?” Jack grinned as he walked away. “I’ll talk to you later. We’re somewhat busy right now and Kendall will need supervision, I do believe, on his little research project. It will be my pleasure to provide him with all the assistance and suggestions he needs.”
Of all of her homes, this would have been the most difficult to find. And her email accounts at those secure servers were...secure. He could not have used their contacts via email to find her. So how? Well, Jack was nothing if not persistent. When he wanted something, he wanted something. He’d wanted to find her and he had. She knew he had, knew he would be walking through that door any second.
TBC at Chapter 1002 Part 3 section 2 of 4