02x03 - Cipher

[destinyros2005]

"Cipher" episode #2.03

(Sydney jogs through the park one afternoon and, following the instructions given to her last week, drops a coin in a homeless Vietnam vet's cup.)

HOMELESS VET: Freelancer requests covert entry.

(Control room at the joint task force.)

AGENT: That's a copy. We'll notify Agent Vaughn.

(Sydney jogs along the street and glances up at the traffic camera. Back in the control room, the agent watches her and an alert reading "NO SURVEILLANCE DETECTED" flashes across the screen.)

AGENT: No one's following her. Ident confirmed. Freelancer is approved quadrant four. Sig int reporting clear. No suspect signs.

(At the ringing phone under the overpass, Sydney punches in the code and the door opens.)

(Inside the task force building, Vaughn and Sydney talk to Kendall.)

KENDALL: Agent Bristow, thank you for coming in. I know you weren't wild about talking with your mother last week but I hope we can agree that the information she gave us made it worth your discomfort.

SYDNEY: I thought so. Until an hour ago.

KENDALL: How is that?

SYDNEY: I just came from a meeting with Sloane. The camera I took from Fordson's vault, the camera we tried to keep from SD-6, was an early prototype. The real camera is scheduled to be launched into orbit seventy-two hours from now.

KENDALL: By whom?

(Flashback: conference meeting with Sloane, Dixon, Sydney, Marshall, and Jack.)

SLOANE: The Asiatic Space Agency. Founded after the fall of the iron curtain, the ASA consists mainly of displaced Russian scientists. Their latest client is an old friend of ours.

(He clicks a button on the remote and a picture of Sark comes up on their screens.)

SYDNEY: Sark.

DIXON: What's his interest in launching a satellite?

SLOANE: That's the question.

MARSHALL: The satellite is equipped with a terahertz imaging camera. Now, this camera's capable of seeing through solid matter up to a depth of a hundred meters.

SLOANE: It is imperative that we find out what Mr. Sark is looking for.

(Back at the task force.)

SYDNEY: The launch site's in Sri Lanka. Sloane wants us to infiltrate it posing as corporate buyers. Our mission is to hack into the satellite so SD-6 can tap into Sark's feed and see what he sees.

VAUGHN: I'll get technical services on that. We'll want to hack into that feed, too.

KENDALL: That's a fine preliminary step, Agent Vaughn, but I will want to know what we're looking for before the satellite is launched.

(He looks at Sydney.)

SYDNEY: You want me to talk to her again.

KENDALL: Mr. Sark has assumed control of your mother's operation--

SYDNEY: Please stop referring to her as my mother.

KENDALL: Therefore, Ms. Derevko must know what he's looking for and she's made it clear she will only speak with you.

SYDNEY: Look, I talked to her before because I had to. I have no intention of making this into a habit.

KENDALL: I assume you have an opinion on this, Agent Vaughn.

VAUGHN: Uh, I don't have an easy answer on that.

KENDALL: I'll take a complicated one.

VAUGHN: I can't pretend to hide my bias here. Irina Derevko betrayed this country and k*lled my father in the process. On the other hand, she is a certifiable Rambaldi expert and probably knows more about the inner workings of global organized crime than any other person in U.S. custody. Having said that, I believe Agent Bristow and I were effectively countering SD-6 before Derevko turned herself in and I stand behind whatever she decides.

KENDALL: I do understand that you're caught in the middle of all this, Agent Bristow. I can only offer my word. The sooner we know what she knows, the sooner you'll never have to speak to her again.

(Barnett's office. Jack sits across from her.)

BARNETT: We weren't scheduled to meet until Wednesday. Is everything all right?

JACK: I'm here to talk about Sydney.

BARNETT: Good. What's on your mind?

JACK: I want your help in devising a strategy to persude Sydney not to interact with her mother.

BARNETT: Why?

JACK: Because Irina Derevko is an opportunistic sociopath who'll use whatever inroads she can make with my daughter to get what she wants.

BARNETT: But have you considered that the more you'll keep her from her mother, the more you're going to spark her interest?

JACK: Of course I have! Which is why I'm hoping to devise a strategy with the necessary subtlety.

BARNETT: Well, I'm sorry, but I am not in the habit of helping a father manipulate his daughter. No matter how good his intentions may be.

JACK: I see. And is your opinion here based on what's best for Sydney, or for the agency? Because the fact is if Sydney doesn't talk to Laura, the CIA learns nothing.

BARNETT: So you still think of her as Laura, even though that was her alias.

(Sydney walks down the hall and reaches the Hannibal cell. Her mom is sitting cross-legged on the floor, with her back to Sydney, facing the small window she has. She breathes deeply.)

IRINA: Autocircadian meditation. All the benefits of sleeping in a fraction of the time.

(She turns around, still sitting on the floor.)

IRINA: I can teach it to you, Sydney.

SYDNEY: I told you. When we speak, you are to address me as Agent Bristow. Mr. Sark was one of your top operatives. He's now assumed control of your assets. He's luanching a satellite with ground-penetrating surveillance capabilities but I doubt this is news to you. What's he looking for?

(Pause. She gets up and walks to the glass.)

IRINA: Do you remember when you were six years old? I sent you to piano lessons. Your teacher was Ms. Adams.

SYDNEY: We're not having this conversation.

IRINA: You asked me a question, I'm giving you an answer. Do you remember the first thing Ms. Adams taught you about music?

SYDNEY: She said music is like math. If you can count, you can play.

IRINA: Every musical note has a corresponding frequency. Middle C, for example, vibrates at two hundred and sixty-one hertz. Which means any piece of music can be expressed as a series of numbers. Sark is looking for a music box designed by Rambaldi. The box plays a unique tune. Encoded within the tune there's an equation.

SYDNEY: For what?

IRINA: Zero-point energy - a fuel source. The m*llitary applications alone would be unlimited.

SYDNEY: From a music box.

IRINA: Of course the music can't play without the proper combination. Sark was working on deciphering it but I don't know whether he was successful.

SYDNEY: Fine. Thank you.

IRINA: Speaking of Ms. Adams... just before I left I remember her encouraging you to try out for your school's Thanksgiving play. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but in the twenty years since I last saw you I often wondered... what part did you play?

SYDNEY: I don't remember. It was around the time I was told my mother had d*ed. Everything else is a blur.

(Sydney walks out.)

(Outside Sydney and her dad meet.)

JACK: I read Vaughn's debrief. I know you saw your mother. You okay?

SYDNEY: Seeing her again, I'm realizing there are these gaps in my memory from around the time she left. Dad... do you remember the Thanksgiving play I was in that year in school? Because I sort of do. I mean, I have an impression of it, but I can't remember... was I a pilgrim or an indian...

(Her dad stares off.)

SYDNEY: What?

JACK: You were neither. You were a turkey. You were the only turkey that was spared to celebrate the harvest.

(She laughs, smiles, and then turns serious.)

SYDNEY: I know you think it's dangerous for me to see Mom. But she's a means to an end. I don't take anything she says at face value.

JACK: She won't expect you to. Sydney... I trust your judgment. You're doing fine.

(Marshall's office. He has a briefcase on his desk and is showing Sydney.)

MARSHALL: Okay, once you get through the launch site to the exhaust ducts, just press this button here and... voila!

(He does so. Ordinary briefcase inside.)

SYDNEY: It's empty.

MARSHALL: Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. Totally forgot to tell you. Real deal - not done yet. But tomorrow when you open up this briefcase you will be looking at a high-performance hydraulic luge.

SYDNEY: How fast can I go?

MARSHALL: About one fifty, which should get you through the launch facility's two-mile ducts in about, oooh, twelve seconds. Oh, you wnat to make sure you get out of there as fast as you can after you're done wiring the circuit board into the satellite because if you're stuck in the ducts when the rocket launches, then, well, boom. And I'd miss you.

(Sloane's office. Sydney knocks and enters.)

SYDNEY: You wanted to see me?

SLOANE: Come in. I have something to give you.

(He hands over a medium sized wooden box with carvings on the lid.)

SLOANE: It's Emily's seed box. The lithography's original, circa 1910. Her mother gave it to her. Emily would want you to have it.

SYDNEY: Thank you. I can't think of Emily without thinking of her garden.

SLOANE: Well, neither can I.

SYDNEY: I miss her, too.

SLOANE: This office is where I feel most at home these days. At the house, I don't know, I seem to be paralyzed. If a stranger were to come to the house for the first time, they would think that Emily still lived there. Her clothes are in the closet. Her makeup on the vanity. The only thing that betrays this pretense of normalcy is her garden. Where roses once grew, they're gone now. Her garden seems to have d*ed with her.

SYDNEY: It's not your fault.

(He looks up suddenly. Sydney watches for a reaction to confirm her suspicions.)

SLOANE: Good luck in Sri Lanka.

(Self-storage meeting with Vaughn.)

VAUGHN: Attach this circuit board to the satellite instead of the one you got from SD-6. Now it's an exact duplicate, they'll still be able to intercept Sark's feed, but we've modified it so we can access the signal, too. See what everyone else is seeing. One more thing... we'd like to bring Will Tippin in for a follow-up on his debrief.

SYDNEY: Why?!

VAUGHN: Derevko told us that Sark has been working on cracking a combination that would activate the music box.

SYDNEY: Yeah.

VAUGHN: And we've been reviewing Tippin's statement and he reported falling in and out of consciousness on the flight to Taipei and vaguely remembers seeing Sark working at a laptop.

SYDNEY: You're thinking, what, induced regression?

VAUGHN: (nods) We have someone coming in from Langley.

SYDNEY: So he can relive everything he went through!

VAUGHN: If there were another option, Sydney, believe me, I'd take it.

(At Francie and Sydney's, Will holds a beer and talks to Sydney near the kitchen.)

SYDNEY: Listen, Will, the CIA wants to meet with you again.

WILL: Why?

SYDNEY: They can tell you better than I can, but here's your S.O.P.

WILL: S.O.P.?

SYDNEY: Standard operating procedure for a meet. You're meeting with my handler.

WILL: Vaughn.

SYDNEY: He's... smart. Professional. Won't waste your time.

(Will shakes his head a little bit.)

SYDNEY: Look, I'm sorry. You deserve to move on from this.

(Francie suddenly comes home.)

FRANCIE: Hey, guys!

(Sydney, moving quick, takes Will's beer from him and takes a sip.)

SYDNEY: Hey!

FRANCIE: What are you doing?

SYDNEY: What?

FRANCIE: Will just went to his first N.A. meeting and you're waving a beer in his face?

SYDNEY: You're right, you're right, you're right.

(She pours it down the sink.)

WILL: It's okay...

FRANCIE: Oh, hey, can you come down to the restaurant tomorrow? I could really use you.

WILL: Sure.

FRANCIE: All the flatware came in and the dishwasher's not hooked up so we have to wash everything by hand before the opening. You're coming, right?

SYDNEY: Are you kidding?

WILL: What time do you need me?

FRANCIE: Two, two-thirty?

SYDNEY: I got to go. I'm going to miss my flight.

FRANCIE: Fancy client or boring seminar?

SYDNEY: Boring client. And he's in Sri Lanka so I get to fly fifteen hours both directions for a one-hour meeting.

WILL: Hey, thanks for letting me stay here until I can afford a cheaper place.

(Sydney kisses him and leaves.)

(Sloane's house. It's after work and that calls for a drink. He pours himself one and sees something. He walks over and opens the door, a quizical look on his face, and walks outside to see that Emily's roses are back in full bloom like she never left.)

(In Sri Lanka, at the space agency, Dixon hides out and watches from some bushes with his laptop nearby as Sark climbs out of a vehicle and walks to the building.)

DIXON: Okay, Syd, Sark's confirmed inside. You're a go.

(Sydney, in a red wig and business suit, drives up to the security gate in a convertible.)

DIXON: (VO) Remember the sooner you get on the phone the more time I have to hack into their system.

SYDNEY: Joanna Kelly from Euro Teledyne. I have an appointment with Mr. Vashko.

(Sark walks into the control room.)

ASA MAN: Mr. Sark! Welcome to our control center. Will you be the only observer from your company today?

SARK: I'm afraid my associates have a plan to lobby Opec for drilling rights.

ASA MAN: We are about to begin the final system checks.

SARK: Excellent.

(Sydney walks in the building with her briefcase.)

VASHKO: Miss Kelly! Welcome to the ASA's launch facility.

SYDNEY: Thank you. I look forward to the tour. Would you mind if I make a call before we start?

(She pulls out her cell.)

VASHKO: Oh, I'm sorry, we do not allow mobile phone use during the launch. It interferes with the radio signal. But you are more than welcome to use one of our landlines.

(He gestures to the front desk phone.)

SYDNEY: Thank you.

(She calls Dixon, who uses the phone line to connect to the modem.)

SYDNEY: Hi, darling! Just checking in.

DIXON: Okay, I'm into their local area network. It'll take me a minute to access the security surveillance feed. Okay, I'm in it.

SYDNEY: Miss you too! Kisses!

(Vashko takes Sydney on the tour through the building.)

VASHKO: And in compliance with Kyoto environmental accords, during launch we filter the rocket's exhaust through two-mile ducts.

SYDNEY: I understand that these ducts are capable of channeling over a million pounds of thrust?

VASHKO: You have done your homework. I will take you to the VIP observation deck. The view is spectacular.

(He swishes a card through the control panel and they go in the elevator.)

SYDNEY: My watch seems to have stopped. Do you have the time?

VASHKO: Oh, sure.

(She sprays something from her watch and Vashko faints, falling to the floor.)

SYDNEY: Okay, Dixon, I'll be in the canal in two minutes.

DIXON: Copy that, Syd. Ready to cut the surveillance feed on your signal.

(In the control center, Sark supervises as the techs do the system check.)

TECH 1: Radio frequency system, check.

TECH 2: Activation vehicle telemetry, check.

TECH 1: Onboard power test, check.

TECH 2: Data transponder and launch vehicle remote control, check.

(Sydney walks down to the ducts in a red jumpsuit. She walks on the launch deck and into the entrance of the ducts. She opens her Marshall briefcase and the entire thing is a luge apparatus. She puts her body down on the briefcase, holds on to the handle and hits a switch. She flies through the ducts. Sydney's now at the base of the rocket, right underneath it.)

SYDNEY: Okay, Dixon, I'm in position.

DIXON: Copy that, Syd. The ground crew's left the launch deck. I'm shutting down surveillance for five minutes starting... now.

(In the control center, all the screens go static.)

TECH: I lost the TV feed to the launch deck!

(Sark watches with interest.)

(Sydney looks way up and starts climbing the ladder on the side of the rocket.)

(Control center. Sark's not happy.)

SARK: What's the problem?

ASA MAN: I'll know shortly.

(He suspects Sydney.)

(Sydney climbs the ladder and walks out to the rocket. She removes a panel on the side.)

SYDNEY: Dixon, how am I doing?

DIXON: Three minutes, ten seconds until surveillance is restored, Syd.

(Control center.)

ASA MAN: Power surge. We'll be back online in three minutes. We assure you, this in no way indicates there is a problem with the launch.

SARK: Is there anywhere on the launch zone that is not visible from here?

ASA MAN: Just the exhaust ducts but our ground crew doesn't go anywhere near there during the countdown.

SARK: Move up the launch.

ASA MAN: Pardon?

(On the rocket, Sydney is into the wires in the panel.)

SYDNEY: I'm splicing into the internal supply system now. Almost there.

(Control center.)

SARK: You said yourself the cameras don't affect the launch.

ASA MAN: Technically, they don't, but if something were to go wrong we would want to study the--

SARK: Then begin the final countdown. Or should we abort altogether and I can spread the word amongst my colleagues that the Asiatic Space Agency is nothing but the poor man's version of NASA.

ASA MAN: Initiate the final countdown! We're advancing our timetable!

(Dixon sees on his laptop that the countdown has restarted and it's quickly approaching.)

DIXON: Syd, get out of there! They've moved up the launch!

(Sydney hauls ass.)

SYDNEY: Dixon, I'm still wiring the circuit board! How much time do I have?

DIXON: Forty-eight seconds and counting!

(In the control center, they prep for the launch.)

TECH 1: Switch to internal power.

TECH 2: Tranmitter code...

TECH 1: Transmitter shows engine to launch.

(Back at the rocket.)

DIXON: Sydney, it's too dangerous! Abort! We're at forty-four seconds and counting. Syd, get out of there!

SYDNEY: No, I got it!

(She finishes and runs down.)

(Control center.)

TECH 1: All systems green for launch in thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven...

(Sydney runs down, jumps on the luge briefcase and hits the switch.)

TECH 1: Three... two...

(The rocket launches and propells a massive fire and smoke ball into the exhaust ducts, right on Sydney's tail. She flies out and onto the launch deck.)

DIXON: Sydney!

(Sydney covers her face as the expl*si*n reaches the end of the ducts.)

SYDNEY: I'm all right. I'll meet you at the rendezvous in ten minutes.

(She looks up to see the rocket in the sky. In the control room, Sark watches on the monitor.)

(At the front desk, Sydney is back in her business suit/red wig combo and gives her visitor pass to the secretary.)

SECRETARY: Did you enjoy the launch?

SYDNEY: It was a thrill!

(Back in Los Angeles, Will walks to his old Jeep and finds a parking ticket under his wiper. He opens it up and there's a handwritten note inside that says "Parking garage behind bar the elevator". Inside, he walks to the elevator and hits the button. The doors open and there's Vaughn. Will steps in. Vaughn hits the button to close the doors. He stops the elevator.)

VAUGHN: Will, I'm Michael Vaughn.

WILL: Hey.

VAUGHN: Sorry about the cloak-and-dagger routine but SD-6 may monitor you from time to time and we had to make sure you weren't followed.

WILL: Sure, I get it. So you're Vaughn.

VAUGHN: You sound surprised.

WILL: No, I just thought you'd be, uh... older.

VAUGHN: Ah. Listen, we want to bring you in for a hypnotherapy session. From your statement we think you might be able to recall details from your capture that could help us.

WILL: When?

VAUGHN: There's a car waiting for us upstairs.

WILL: Now?

(Vaughn nods.)

WILL: You know, I can't. I'm helping my friend get her restaurant ready.

VAUGHN: Francie.

WILL: (freaked) Right...

VAUGHN: So tomorrow then?

WILL: Sure, okay.

VAUGHN: Okay, you'll get a call on your cell phone from a telemarketer asking if you're interested in consolidating your debt. That will be your signal to meet back here. We'll have a car take you to our office.

WILL: So every time that Sydney ran out the door after she got a wrong number, she was going to meet you?

VAUGHN: It's standard procedure in case the line's tapped. It's a low-risk wayto set up a meet.

WILL: Did you ever give her a picture frame? It was, like, an antique. She said it was from somebody at work and it was probably just another way to contact her... right?

VAUGHN: No, actually, that was just a gift.

(Vaughn hits the button.)

VAUGHN: It's nice to meet you, Will.

(They shake hands.)

WILL: You, too.

(Vaughn walks out. The elevator doors close and Will probably tries to calculate how long it would take for him to kick Vaughn's ass all in the name of lurrrve.)

(SD-6 conference room with Sloane, Marshall, Jack, Dixon and Sydney.)

SLOANE: Congratulations are in order to both of you. Thanks to your efforts in Sri Lanka we were able to intercept the feed from the satellite launched by Mr. Sark yesterday. He's looking at a twenty-square-mile area of Siberia. Marshall?

MARSHALL: Right, now, I know, I know, this looks like twenty miles of frozen tundrocity, right? Well, take a look at it through the terahertz imaging camera.

(They all see on their screens a grid over the area. Among the smaller, lighter lines is the dark, meaning deep, lines that form this: )

SYDNEY: The symbol of Rambaldi.

MARSHALL: Yeah. Now what the satellite's looking at are subglacial caverns under the ice.

DIXON: Are you saying it's a natural formation?

MARSHALL: Well, beats me. I'm really--without actual ice core samples I can't say anything except, you know, wow.

SLOANE: We are now looking at an image with a ten-centimeter resolution. And as you can see in the center of the cavern there seems to be an object notably composed of metal. We must acquire this object before Mr. Sark does. So you will be accompanied by a support team. They will establish a perimeter with Agent Dixon to guard every possible entrance of the cave. Sydney, you're on point. Flight leaves in four hours. That's all. You can go.

(Everyone gets up to leave.)

SLOANE: Jack, would you stay a minute please?

(Sydney and Jack exchange a look. Once everyone's gone, Sloane closes the doors.)

SLOANE: I want to ask you for a favor, Jack. I think I may have underestimated the effect that Emily's death would have on me.

JACK: You're entitled to your grief.

SLOANE: Not when it undermines my authority here, my standing within the Alliance.

(They sit down.)

SLOANE: I need you to monitor me, Jack. I need you to pull me aside if you think that I'm letting my cards show.

JACK: Of course.

SLOANE: The day before she--the day before she passed, Emily reserved us a suite at our favorite bed and breakfast in Sonoma. Even in her last moments she was planning our future. I'm not a spiritual man, but I feel lately her presence... everywhere around me.

JACK: Trauma can bring about feelings of metaphysical familiarity. Waking dreams, as it were. On the other hand, who's to say she isn't with you?

(At the CIA exam room, Will sits in a chair with electrodes on his head. He's slumped over. Sydney, Vaughn and the CIA hypnotherapy lady are in the adjoining room, looking at him through the glass. Hypnotheraphy lady speaks to him through the microphone.)

HYPNO LADY: I'm going to count backwards from three and when I reach one I want you to lift your head and tell me where you are. Three... two... one.

(Will lifts his head slowly. When he does, we're with Will in his mind, on the plane. His handcuffed hands feel his bruised face. When he's on the plane throughout this sequence, he literally speaks and is not a voice over. It's done really well.)

HYPNO LADY: (VO) Where are you?

(Will looks around. Two g*ons stare at him.)

WILL: I'm in a cargo plane... on the way to Taipei.

HYPNO LADY: Will, how are you feeling?

WILL: I'm afraid they're going to k*ll me.

(Back in the exam room. Will starts to cry a little.)

WILL: I'm afraid they're going to get to Sydney.

HYPNO LADY: They can't, Will. You're revisiting what's already happened. This is just a memory. Now tell me what you see.

(Back on the plane. Will looks around.)

WILL: Sark...

(Back in the exam room.)

WILL: Working on his laptop.

(Sydney and Vaughn exchange a look.)

HYPNO LADY: Can you see the screen?

(Back on the plane, Will's on the other side of the plane and Sark has his back to him.)

WILL: No.

(Back in the exam room, Will's eyes are closed and he keeps talking.)

WILL: It's too far away.

(Vaughn moves closer and whispers to the Hypno Lady.)

VAUGHN: (whispers) In his statement he said that he was picked up and carried off the plane so maybe he got closer.

HYPNO LADY: Will, listen to me. I want you to think ahead to when the plane landed, when you were getting off the plane. Can you do that?

WILL: Yes.

(We're back on the plane. Sark is standing up and shakes hands with the two g*ons.)

HYPNO LADY: What do you see?

(The g*ons come closer to Will. They take his arms to carry him off. Will shrinks back in his seat, afraid.)

WILL: Oh, God, please, please, please don't k*ll me!

(In the exam room, Will is back in his seat, afraid.)

WILL: Please don't k*ll me! Please!

SYDNEY: Wake him up!

HYPNO LADY: It's all right.

WILL: Don't k*ll me! Please don't k*ll me!

HYPNO LADY: Will, tell me what's happening.

(Back on the plane, Will is being shuffled out of the plane by the g*ons.)

WILL: They're carrying me off the plane.

HYPNO LADY: (VO) Can you see Sark's computer?

WILL: No. No, I'm passing too fast.

HYPNO LADY: Go back and try again. This time, when you pass the computer, I want you to stop.

(In his mind, Will backs up again. The light's shining on the screen, making it hard for Will to see. We get closer.)

WILL: Names. I-I see names.

HYPNO LADY: Read them to me.

WILL: Dostoyevsky... Nabokov... Tolstoy... Chekov.

(Sydney nods.)

HYPNO LADY: That's good, Will. Now, when you hear the tone I want you to open your eyes and as soon as you do you will feel rested and refreshed.

(Tone. Will's eyes slowly open and he looks around.)

HYPNO LADY: I need to check his vitals. Just give me a minute.

(Sydney smiles as she looks at Will through the glass and turns to Vaughn.)

VAUGHN: You okay?

SYDNEY: I doubt the code that activates Rambaldi's music box is a list of Russian authors. It must be some kind of cipher text.

VAUGHN: Look, under normal circumstances I would never ask this but your mother is the only person who can translate those names for us by the time you leave. If your mother will give us the code to activate the music box we want you to activate the box on site. You'll get it to play and we'll record the music through your comm link and you'll destroy it.

HYPNO LADY: Agent Bristow.

(She waves her in. Sydney leaves Vaughn without another word and goes to the next room to see Will. She puts her hand on his shoulder as Vaughn watches.)

(At Irina's cell, Sydney has her pad of paper in front of her reading the names off of it.)

SYDNEY: Dostoyevsky, Nabokov, Tolstoy, Chekov. We took these code words from Sark's computer. I want you to translate them for me.

IRINA: Give me a pencil and paper.

SYDNEY: No.

IRINA: I can't decipher it without pencil and paper.

(Sydney breaks the pencil and passes the stub through the net. She rips the paper out of her pad, rolls it up, and passes that through. Irina immediately starts writing on it, figuring it out.)

IRINA: Mmm... You know, you haven't asked me how I could sh**t my own daughter.

SYDNEY: No, I haven't.

(Irina folds up the paper and slides it through, solving the text in fifteen seconds.)

IRINA: I assume you wouldn't need this combination so urgently if you didn't know where the music box was. Sark won't hesitate to k*ll you. I don't want to lose the chance to explain myself someday.

(Sydney turns to walk out, not wanting to hear it. She stops.)

SYDNEY: About the Thanksgiving play... I was a turkey.

(Irina, in a very human moment, closes her eyes and looks down.)

IRINA: (whispers) Thank you.

(Sydney walks out. Upstairs on the monitor, Jack has been watching and he's not happy.)

(Siberia. It's snowing. Dixon, Sydney and two other agents -- Cooper and Novak -- approach the cave.)

DIXON: I'm not reading any inbound contacts. Looks good. We're all alone out here, but keep your motion trackers on. Novak, you guard the southeast entrace. Cooper, you're guarding the north. Stay on stations.

(They leave.)

DIXON: Watch your step. If you fall through the ice, it'll freeze over in four seconds.

SYDNEY: Good to know.

(She walks in.)

(Sloane, at his house, is doing work. He sighs, stretches a little, and looks at a framed picture of Emily he has on his desk. The phone rings.)

SLOANE: Yeah?

(All he hears is static.)

SLOANE: Hello? Hello?

(The static continues. He hangs up, gets dial tone, and punches a button on his phone.)

AGENT: Yes, sir?

SLOANE: Can you get me security section? I need a backtrace on a call I just received.

AGENT: Just a moment. Sir, the call came from the Baranca Bed and Breakfast in Sonoma county, California.

(Siberia.)

DIXON: Report contacts!

NOVAK: Post one, holding negative on contacts!

COOPER: Post two, no contact! I'm all alone out here.

DIXON: Sydney, how do you copy in there?

SYDNEY: Got you five by, Dixon.

(She walks around the caves for a bit and finally sees it.)

SYDNEY: Dixon, the ice in this tunnel looks a little shaky, I'm going to go radio silent until I pass through.

DIXON: Copy that. Standing by.

(In her cell, Irina does some push-ups facing the window. The buzzer goes off, letting her know she has a visitor. She turns to see Jack standing there, emotionless as ever. She gets up.)

IRINA: I've had this picture of your face in my mind for twenty years. I remember a loving husband, generous man, patriot. I may have been under orders to fabricate a life with you, but there were times when the illusion of our marriage was as powerful to me as it was for you, especially when Sydney was born. Looking at you now I see that illusion is finally gone.

JACK: I want to make something very clear to you. There are people here who believe you can repay the debt you owe this country through your continued cooperation. I am not one of them. And if Sydney in any way becomes victim to your endgame, I will k*ll you. She spent most of her life believing you were dead, she'll get used to it again. No matter what bond you try to forge with her.

(He walks away.)

IRINA: You haven't told her what you did to her after I disappeared... have you?

(Jack walks out.)

(In Siberia, Sydney hits the lock off with her pick axe and breaks the music box open.)

SYDNEY: Base ops, this is Freelancer, do you copy?

VAUGHN: Read you loud and clear, Freelancer.

SYDNEY: I found the music box. It looks intact. Stand by, I'm going to enter the code my mother gave me.

(Outside the cave.)

DIXON: Cooper, Novak, I've got an inbound contact! Northwest, one hundred meters, can you confirm?

COOPER: Got 'em on my radar!

NOVAK: Ditto! But I don't see anyone!

DIXON: The target has stopped! Correction, reading four! Four tangos! Approaching from all directions, they're heading for the entrance!

NOVAK: I still don't see anyone!

DIXON: Sydney, do you copy? Sydney!

(But Sydney doesn't copy because she's talking to Vaughn and Kendall.)

SYDNEY: Three, one, one, two, five, four.

(The music starts to play.)

AGENT: We've got audio.

(Vaughn listens.)

DIXON: Talk to me, Cooper, your tango is ten meters away!

COOPER: I don't see anything!

DIXON: It's right on top of you!

COOPER: I'm telling you, I'm all over it--

(Suddenly he's sh*t from underneath the ice and falls.)

DIXON: Cooper, do you copy? Talk to me, Cooper!

NOVAK: My contact's at two meters. It's got to be an equipment malfunction!

DIXON: Novak... they're under the ice!

(Novak's sh*t. Dixon starts sh**ting at the ice underneath him.)

DIXON: Do you copy, Sydney?!

(Sydney plays the music.)

SYDNEY: Okay, that's it. Confirm you've got the recording, I'm ready to destroy the music box.

VAUGHN: Affirmative. We've got the recording.

SYDNEY: It's affirmative on ten-seven.

(She sprays a solution on it that makes everything dissolve and rust. She closes the lid and puts it in her case, clicks over to Dixon.)

DIXON: ---Sydney, DO YOU COPY?

SYDNEY: I read you, Dixon, what's wrong?

DIXON: Get out of there! Sark's here!

(She turns and Sark's already there with his g*n pointed.)

SARK: Put the case down.

(She does.)

SARK: Slide it over.

(Sydney kicks it across the ice. Sark stops it with his boot.)

SARK: It was you giving us problems at the launch. I'd offer you passage back to civilization but my submersible only seats four.

SYDNEY: It's the thought that counts.

(Sydney whips around and throws the pick axe at him. It gets Sark in the left thigh. He screams out and falls backwards, letting his g*n sh**t everywhere just at the same moment that Sydney tries to run out. As soon as she runs, the sh*t ice breaks underneath her and she falls through. She goes back to the surface, thinking it's a way out, but it's frozen over. Sydney bangs at the ice, submerged in the icy water.)