02x04 - Dead Drop

[destinyros2005]

(Continuing from last week. Sydney bangs on the ice but it has frozen over. Under water, she looks around and sees the dead marksman who was sh**ting at Cooper and Novak under the ice. One of them must've sh*t him and k*lled him during the g*nf*re. Sydney swims over and takes his breathing apparatus. She takes a swig. He's still holding onto his r*fle. Sydney takes it from him, swims closer to the top, and sh**t at the ice. Panting and shivering, she reaches the ice on the side of the water but can't lift herself up. She sinks back into the water until Dixon reaches in and pulls her out. They fall back onto the ice, hugging each other.)

DIXON: Sydney.

SYDNEY: (shivering) Hi.

(Sydney sits in front of Sloane's desk with a cup of coffee.)

SLOANE: The music box that you were sent to retrieve. Mr. Sark got away with it.

SYDNEY: Yes. But after five hundred years buried in the Siberian ice, the music box was corroded. It practically fell apart in my hands.

SLOANE: That's odd.

SYDNEY: What's that?

SLOANE: Milo Rambaldi. He's done this before, many times. Hiding information inside works of art. The clock, sculpture. Hmm. This time he chose to bury one of his most important innovations -- the formula for zero-point energy -- inside a music box.

SYDNEY: You're talking about an inventor who lived five hundred years ago. Anything regarding Milo Rambaldi seems odd to me.

SLOANE: Well, what's unusual isn't how he hid the information, Sydney, it's where. Why would Milo Rambaldi go to the unimaginable length of having catacombs built in Siberia only to leave his music box exposed to corrosive elements?

(Flashback: Sydney spraying something on the music box to make it dissolve and rust.)

SYDNEY: Another Rambaldi mystery.

(Self-storage building. Sydney and Vaughn meeting.)

VAUGHN: So do you think Sloane suspects you?

SYDNEY: That I used the inhaler to corrode the music box? No, I don't think so.

(Flashback: Sydney and Sloane hugging, Sloane with a big smile on his face.)

SYDNEY: (VO) Sloane made sure I knew how relieved he was that I made it back safely.

(Back to the self-storage.)

SYDNEY: I went home, took a shower, and came here.

VAUGHN: Good. By the way, you should know Siberia was a complete success. When you activated the music box, we recorded it. It's at Langley for analysis. So we got the intel and Sloane didn't.

SYDNEY: Neither did Sark.

(She looks down.)

VAUGHN: What?

SYDNEY: The information my mother gave us helped us again, that's all.

VAUGHN: You know you can talk to me about your mother.

SYDNEY: I know that doing that is harder for you than you make it seem.

VAUGHN: Well, it's my job.

SYDNEY: Vaughn, she k*lled your father.

VAUGHN: Yes, thank you.

SYDNEY: You don't have to pretend with me.

VAUGHN: And you don't have to withhold.

SYDNEY: All I'm saying is that it's unfair.

VAUGHN: Well, maybe so, but I certainly didn't join the CIA looking for fairness! After everything she's done to you, are those things you could ever forgive?

SYDNEY: I don't know.

VAUGHN: Yeah, well, your father doesn't share that ambiguity. He's meeting with Assistant Director Kendall right now and he is lobbying to have your mother taken away.

(Sydney marches into the joint task force offices and finds Kendall and Jack talking.)

KENDALL: As long as she's helping us in the w*r against SD-6 and the Alliance, she stays!

SYDNEY: Did you even read my report?

JACK: Yes, of course.

SYDNEY: Well, why are you completely disregarding what I wrote?

KENDALL: Great job in Siberia, Agent Bristow.

SYDNEY: Thank you.

KENDALL: Excuse me.

(He leaves them alone.)

JACK: I agreed with what you wrote, that on more than one occasion, your mother has provided crucial intel to the CIA and to the detriment of SD-6. It would even appear that her actions have kept you out of harms way.

SYDNEY: Dad, that's a fact!

JACK: There's another fact! Nothing that woman says or does can be taken at face value. Her motivations are strictly her own and now that your dealings with your mother have taken on an emotional component, I'm concerned.

SYDNEY: Well, don't be. I'm more professional than that. Every one of our discussions has been specific and mission-related.

JACK: You told her about your school play.

SYDNEY: You heard me tell her I was a turkey.

JACK: Yes.

SYDNEY: You were watching me. Dad, I have enough spying in my life to worry about.

JACK: What I've been watching is you make the same mistakes with that woman that I did. Sydney, she's someone that you've idealized for almost twenty years. You didn't learn about her history with the KGB until recently.

SYDNEY: What does that matter?

JACK: That you've wanted a mother -- your mother -- all your life and now here she is.

SYDNEY: Dad... you don't have to worry about me. I'm not that naive.

JACK: I'm sure that's something we both hope is true.

(He leaves.)

(Sloane's alone in his office. Jack knocks and Sloane punches a few buttons that unlocks the door. Jack enters.)

JACK: You wanted to see me?

SLOANE: Yeah.

(Jack sits.)

SLOANE: Several nights ago, I received a phone call at my home. There was no one at the other end, just some high-pitched static, but something about the call left me unsettled.

JACK: Did security section run a trace?

SLOANE: Yeah. The call originated in Sonoma, California. The Baranca Bed and Breakfast Inn. Emily and I spent some time there. It was our favorite getaway.

JACK: Simple. It was a wrong number.

SLOANE: I'm not so sure.

JACK: I don't understand what you're suggesting.

SLOANE: I'm suggesting that someone may be trying to leave me unsettled. I would like you to send someone to Sonoma, Jack. I need to know who made that call.

JACK: Sure, I'll get security section--

SLOANE: Jack, I don't want this to get back to the Alliance. They can't know that I'm taking measures.

JACK: I understand.

SLOANE: Good.

JACK: I'll send Dixon.

SLOANE: Jack, there's something else. After Sark recovered Rambaldi's music box, we tracked him to a safehouse in the Falkland Islands. Sent in a team.

JACK: And did we retrieve it?

SLOANE: Yes. It was destroyed with age as Sydney said. Worthless. But we found something else.

(Sydney and Francie are eating cereal and laughing.)

SYDNEY: He was like eighty years old?

FRANCIE: At least. Syd, I'm serious.

(Phone rings in the background.)

FRANCIE: I expected like a delivery guy to be buffed out. I mean, he sounded hot on the phone...

SYDNEY: Was he a cute eighty?

FRANCIE: Shut up!

(Will walks in.)

FRANCIE: Hey.

WILL: Francie, there's a woman on the phone from the health department.

FRANCIE: Ooh, I'm getting graded today.

(She leaves to get the phone.)

WILL: How's it going?

SYDNEY: Okay.

WILL: (lower voice) How's your mom?

SYDNEY: Oooh... How are you?

WILL: Well, I've got four weeks left of community service and then I'm done. Hey, um, you remember last week when I cooperated and let the CIA hypnotize me?

SYDNEY: Yeah.

WILL: What happened with that? I mean, was I helpful at all? And I'm only asking because about five minutes ago I was doing pretty well as a reporter, you know, and now I'm a dishwasher living in denial. That's all.

SYDNEY: The information you provided was huge.

WILL: Huge? Really?

SYDNEY: Because of you, the CIA scored a real victory. I should have told you that before, I'm sorry.

WILL: No, no, no, don't worry about it. That's so good to know.

(Sydney's pager goes off. She looks at it.)

WILL: Good guys or bad guys?

SYDNEY: Neither. My father.

(Middle of nowhere, the two Bristows drive up and get out of their vehicles.)

SYDNEY: Everything okay?

JACK: I talked with Sloane this morning. He sent a team after Sark. He wanted to recover the music box.

SYDNEY: I told him it was ruined.

JACK: Yes, but he wanted it anyway. He tracked down Sark to a location in the Falklans.

(Flashback: Several SD-6 men storm a small shack, g*ns aimed. Sark is standing at the back of the room and starts f*ring his g*n.)

JACK: (VO) Sark fought back. He got away.

(Sark dives through a boarded up window and escapes.)

JACK: (VO) They did, however, find a man at that location who was being held and tortured. His name is Klaus Richter. Three weeks ago Richter was in Barcelona.

(The men find Richter tied to a chair, sweating and panting.)

(Back to meeting.)

SYDNEY: When I was there.

JACK: Yes, along with your mother. The operations manual of the organization your mother used to run -- The Bible. Anyone who gets their hands on that book will gain access to all the contacts, technology, and weaponry they amassed over the last ten years. Sloane believes your mother gave the book to Richter, that he was the man who hid the book.

SYDNEY: Do you think that's true?

JACK: I know it is. They brought Richter into an SD-6 holding cell and I interrogated him.

(SD-6 holding cell. It's a small and dark room and Richter is on his back, arms spread open. He's panting and sweating profusely. Jack slowly walks in.)

JACK: (VO) Before being brought into SD-6, Richter was screened for every type of possible infection -- ebola, HIV, retroviruses. They didn't finda thing, yet this man was clearly dying. Medtech believes he may have been suffering from an allergic reaction to something Sark used on him. Apparently the first sign of illness was bleeding from the fingernails.

(Richter's fingers are all bandaged, with blood seeping through the white gauze.)

(Back to the meeting.)

JACK: Sloane wanted me to t*rture him but that man was tortured as it was.

(Back to the interrogation, Jack gets out a syringe.)

JACK: (VO) So I gave him morphine.

(Jack injects him and takes off the rubber band around his arm.)

JACK: Irina Derevko gave you the operations manual for her syndicate. I would like you to tell me where you've hidden it.

RICHTER: Derevko is a great woman.

JACK: Morphine's not bad, either. Let me be clear. I've only given you enough to last five minutes. Cooperate and get all you want. Resist and you get none.

(Richter winces.)

JACK: Where did you hide that manual?

(Meeting with Sydney outside.)

JACK: The location was too remote to describe. It turns out Richter had designed a map to lead your mother back to the book's location.

SYDNEY: So where's the map?

JACK: Inside a first edition of w*r and Peace located at the technical services library at Fapsi headquarters in Moscow.

SYDNEY: Fapsi headquarters.

JACK: Sloane is preparing to send you to Moscow to retrieve Richter's map. I've had the CIA fabricate a bogus map. You go to Moscow, retrieve the real one, which you'll return to the CIA. You'll give SD-6 this map which will lead them to the middle of the Sunken Forest.

SYDNEY: Why have you come to me like this? Before my SD-6 briefing? You giving me the CIA countermission instead of Vaughn?

JACK: Because this is the best way to respond to your responsibilities.

SYDNEY: No. I know what this is. You don't want me to take this to Mom.

JACK: There's no benefit in seeing her. You have all the information you need.

SYDNEY: We don't know that!

JACK: Sydney, we've been doing this long enough to know that our system works.

SYDNEY: Our system was stagnant until Mom turned herself in! Dad, we've covered this. We've both been betrayed by this woman. The difference between you and me is that I'm willing to squeeze her for everything she's got to take down the enemy and to get me the hell out of this life as soon as possible! Anything.

(NA meeting. Will sits in front of everyone.)

WILL: I'm Will, and I'm an addict.

EVERYONE: Hi, Will.

WILL: I never thought bout my reputation until I lost it. It all happened very publicly so people actually look at me at the market and stuff. "Okay, there's the drug addict from the newspaper." Well, actually... there has been one happy byproduct from all this. I have a good friend who, it turns out, I, uh... I didn't know at all before. And now she and I can talk in a way that we never did before and uh... and I don't think I would trade that for anything.

(Later, Will inspects the box of donuts.)

REBECCA: The same thing happened to me.

WILL: What?

REBECCA: I learned who my true friends were when everyone found out about my habit. Uh, I'm Rebecca Martinez.

WILL: Hi. I'm Will Tippin, nice to--

REBECCA: I know who you are, Will Tippin. I read your articles. The reporter with the big imagination who fell in love with the heroin chic lifestyle.

WILL: Yeah. Yeah, that's me.

REBECCA: My theory? I don't think you ever really were a drug addict.

WILL: Why would you say that?

REBECCA: Well, I believe what you wrote about SD-6 was true. I think you got too close to some kind of secret conspiracy and they had to shut you down. They probably came after you, told you not to talk. I mean, they couldn't k*ll you, could they? No. That would expose them. So they threatened you and then to ruin your reputation they sh*t you up.

WILL: No. Uh, no. I-I made up all that stuff about SD-6. That was me. That was me, being an idiot. What?

REBECCA: Sorry. I'm sort of a conspiracy theorist. I have a web page, conspiracychick.com Here. (gives him her card) I want to prove your story about SD-6 was real.

(The prison doors buzz as Sydney walks to her mother's cell. She comes up close to see Irina reading a book, sitting on her bed. Sydney gets a chair and sits down.)

SYDNEY: Klaus Richter is in SD-6 custody. I'm aware that you refused to give the CIA details about this operations manual you had Richter hide away and I understand why. The knowledge contained in that manual is your only leverage. But now, having spoken with Richter, SD-6 is after it. Richter was found in the custody of Mr. Sark. We don't know what Sark knows. He might already have the map in his possession. I'm here because SD-6 is sending me to Moscow. I'm going to retrieve the map at Fapsi headquarters. So if you want to help the CIA, as you claim to, you'll give us any information you have that will facilitate the recovery of Richter's map.

IRINA: When I turned myself over to CIA, a pair of earrings were taken from me. They have sentimental value. I'd like them back.

SYDNEY: I'll see what I can do.

IRINA: And in good faith, tell me how you plan on breaking into the library.

(Jack is in therapy with Dr. Barnett. His arms are folded across his chest and he taps his fingers against his forearm distractedly.)

JACK: She went to see her mother. I tried... I tried to stop her. I made it clear.

BARNETT: Made what clear?

JACK: Trusting her mother. She's playing with fire.

BARNETT: We've had this discussion.

JACK: There's no one else to do this job.

BARNETT: Sydney went to see her mother.

JACK: Yes. She's there now... looking for help.

(Sydney and Irina are bonding.)

IRINA: The east wing stairwell is an option, I can see why SD-6 chose that route. But there's a better way to get to the sixth floor library. Write this down. Once you're inside the building, don't take the main stairs. You just look to your left and there's a door...

(Back in therapy.)

JACK: No one wants a happy ending to this story more than I do but I know this woman. I know her charms. I know her tricks. The way she presents herself, she disarms you. Some people have that talent. Compared to all of them, Irina Derevko is extraordinary.

BARNETT: Is there any chance that all she wants is forgiveness?

JACK: No.

BARNETT: Be specific about your concerns.

JACK: I don't know what it is Derevko wants. Maybe something within the CIA, maybe to recruit Sydney to her side. I can tell you I know this -- Derevko is using this agency and my daughter to get whatever it is that she wants and everywhere I look people are complacent and cooperative! Listening to--!

(He stops and tries to calm down.)

JACK: Listening to a woman who k*lled operatives of the CIA. Who destroyed countless lives.

BARNETT: Yours?

(Sydney closes her notepad and smiles but tries to hide it.)

SYDNEY: We'll take your suggestions into consideration.

IRINA: Be careful.

(Sydney looks up and smiles a little. Irina smiles as Sydney gets up to leave. She starts walking out.)

JACK: (VO) You asked me what I was afraid of. I can tell you, it's obvious.

(Sydney smiles and leaves the prison.)

(Therapy.)

JACK: I'm afraid of losing my daughter.

(Vaughn walks in the self-storage meeting place but Sydney's already there waiting.)

VAUGHN: Hey. So I heard your father came to see you and he tried to preempt my involvement.

SYDNEY: He was just trying to keep me away from my mother.

VAUGHN: I know.

SYDNEY: She actually had some intel for this mission that could help.

VAUGHN: Good. Listen, as far as your mother's concerned, it's ridiculous for you to worry about me. I mean, I'm fine. What she did to my father, I can handle. But when I heard what your father did, coming to see you like that, I realized how insane it must be for him, having your mother back in his life. Which only concerned me because that means he's not making it any easier for you. So before you leave for Moscow I just wanted to say that you might feel alone in all this, like you don't have an ally. (pause) I'm your ally. Never question that.

(Sydney gets tears in her eyes. An agent walks in.)

AGENT: Miss Bristow, your plane's standing by.

SYDNEY: I'll see you when I get back.

(They smile at each other. Sydney leaves.)

(In Moscow, Sydney walks in wearing an army outfit with medals on her chest. She comes to two guards standing in front of the metal detector.)

GUARD: (in Russian) Credentials please, Major.

SYDNEY: (in Russian) I see you're wearing the order of the Red Star, first class.

GUARD: (in Russian) Yes, ma'am. I was in Grozny.

SYDNEY: (in Russian) We lost a lot of good people in Chechnya.

(He waves her through. When she walks through the metal detector, the alarm goes. She comes back and puts her arms out to be scanned. The other guard waves the metal detector in front of her and it goes off when he puts it near her chest.)

GUARD: (in Russian) Sorry for the delay.

(They salute her. She nods and walks through, gets to the elevator. She takes a medal off of her chest.)

(Flashback: Marshall's workplace. He holds the cluster of medals.)

MARSHALL: Okay, these medals that you won? Well, you didn't really win them and they're not really medals. This one right here is the Order of Bravery, right? Not a medal, right? No. It's an electronic skeleton key.

(Sydney puts the medal into the pad and the elevator goes up.)

MARSHALL: (VO) It'll get you access to the sixth floor.

(Sydney takes the medal out and runs down the hall. She gets to the library door but it's locked.)

(Back to Marshall's office.)

MARSHALL: This one -- the Order of Zukov, first class -- this will get you into the technical library.

(Sydney walks around the stacks of books and goes to a computer. She sits down and takes another medal off.)

(Marshall's still holding up all the medals.)

MARSHALL: Now this one is the Order of Merit, it'll get you into the A.S.R.S.

SYDNEY: What's the A.S.R.S.?

MARSHALL: Okay, the majority of the books are kept in a secure area underneath the building. Now, in order to get them you're going to need to get to the selection terminal.

(Sydney's at the computer, in the system.)

MARSHALL: (VO) What you'll do is type in the name of the book you want then there's going to be this, like, a*t*matic crane thing that retrieves the book that you've requested and then deposits it over on the sixth floor, okay?

(Sydney types the title in and watches the video footage on the computer as the mechanical crane selects the book and brings the drawer over to the opening to slide it down a chute to the sixth floor library.)

(Marshall's office.)

MARSHALL: Now, just make sure you don't remove the medal until after you've logged off the system or you'll probably set off the alarm, okay?

(He tries to put the medals on his shirt but it pierces his skin.)

MARSHALL: Owww! Actually, it felt kind of good.

(Library. The crane brings it over. Beep. The book slides down right behind Sydney. But a g*n cocks in her face. Sydney looks up to see Sark, dressed in a similiar outfit to Sydney's, minus the skirt of course.)

SARK: Whatever Arvin Sloane pays you, it can't be enough. Would you consider coming to work for me if it meant I'd let you walk out of here? I believe if you took the time to hear the comprehensive offer, you might actually say yes.

(Sydney checks him out, looking him up and down.)

SYDNEY: You're cute, but I'll pass.

(She removes the medal which makes the alarm go off. Sydney jumps up from her seat and delivers an uppercut to Sark's face, making his Russian army hat fly off. They both block each other's punches for a bit until Sark kicks Sydney hard and makes her fall into a bookshelf. He runs over to the book, finds the map, but the Russian guards come in and see him. Sark rolls behind a desk and aims his g*n. The guards and Sark sh**t at each while Sydney sneaks over from her hiding place and picks up the fallen map. She runs up the stairs to the seventh floor as the guards throw Sark on the ground. Sydney runs out but the guards see her and start yelling. Up on the seventh, she runs down a hall. The guards are following. She runs into an office, hides behind a desk and removes her belt buckle which is a phone. Back in LA, Vaughn's cell rings.)

VAUGHN: Go ahead.

SYDNEY: It's me! I am trapped in the technical services building. I need a way out! My mother said something about secret passages. Get her on the phone!

(Meanwhile the guards are checking every room for her, kicking in doors with their g*ns ready.)

(Vaughn runs down the hall to Irina's cell, ducking under the bars to get there. He slaps the glass of her cell to get her attention, his phone up to his ear.)

VAUGHN: Sydney's trapped in the Fapsi building in Moscow! She needs a way out, now!

IRINA: Where is she, exactly?

VAUGHN: (on phone) Where are you exactly?

SYDNEY: An office on the seventh floor!

VAUGHN: An office on the seventh floor.

(The guards are coming closer, entering another office.)

IRINA: Whose office?

VAUGHN: (on phone) Whose office?

(Sydney turns around and looks at the nameplate on the desk.)

SYDNEY: General Vitali Siminov.

VAUGHN: General Vitali Siminov.

IRINA: Ask her if there's an abstract painting behind the desk.

VAUGHN: (on phone) Is there an abstract painting behind the desk?

SYDNEY: Yes, yes, yes!

VAUGHN: Behind it, there's an activation switch for a private security door.

(Sydney gets up and moves the painting. She hits the switch and the desk moves away from the wall. Vaughn waits. The guards storm the office just as the desk moves back into place. Shouting in Russian, they check the office but Sydney's gone. Outside the building she calmly walks by a line of tourists waiting to get in.)

TOURIST: What time does this place open?

SYDNEY: (in Russian accent) Not for another hour!

(She keeps walking.)

SYDNEY: I'm out and I've got the map.

(Back at the cell, Vaughn sighs with relief.)

VAUGHN: Copy, Freelancer, see you at home.

(He hangs up and looks at Irina.)

IRINA: How do you say "thank you" to the woman who k*lled your father?

VAUGHN: You don't.

(Later, Sydney and Vaughn sit down at the joint task force offices.)

VAUGHN: Sark asked you to come work with him?

SYDNEY: Like it wasn't even a question, like it was a done deal. Sark is like the good-looking guy in high school who knows how cute he is and won't take no for an answer.

VAUGHN: Any suspicious reaction to the map you gave SD-6?

SYDNEY: No. They're analyzing it now.

VAUGHN: Good. We have a CIA tech trying to decode the real map. They're having trouble with it.

SYDNEY: Do you think Richter used cipher text only they could read?

VAUGHN: Maybe. Your mother might be able to help us with this.

SYDNEY: If you're aking me to go see her again, she did have a request.

(Irina's cell. The drawer opens and she takes out her earrings.)

SYDNEY: They've been checked for hidden compartments, transmitters, passive sensors. Every sharp edge has been dulled.

IRINA: I was twenty-one years old when I was given these at the graduation from the academy. My mother -- your grandmother -- put these in my hands. I cried. She said, "Sweetheart, wear them well." You would have liked her. Had things... been different.

(Sydney puts the map in the drawer. Irina takes it.)

SYDNEY: We need you to decode the map.

(SD-6 offices. Jack walks in and sits on Dixon's desk.)

JACK: I have a request.

DIXON: Sure.

JACK: Mr. Sloane is concerned about a phone call he received at home last Thursday night. The call was traced at the Baranca Bed & Breakfast in Sonoma, California. He's asked me to send someone to Sonoma to find out who was staying there, who might have made the call, whatever information you can get.

DIXON: Sounds easy enough.

JACK: No one's to know about this.

DIXON: Understood.

(They nod in agreement.)

(Irina, with a pad of paper and a pen, decodes the map.)

IRINA: Madagascar... close to Sambaba... latitude, minus fourteen degrees. Twenty-six minutes. Longitude forty-nine degrees. Fifty-seven minutes and twenty-seconds.

(She flips the pad over to show Sydney.)

(Upstairs, Vaughn, Sydney, Jack and Kendall stand around.)

SYDNEY: She says the building is clean. There are no expl*sives, or anti-intrusion systems.

JACK: You obviously can't trust this information.

SYDNEY: Dad, come on. If she wanted me dead she could have left me stuck at Fapsi headquarters.

JACK: Your mother knows that the only leverage she has is the information about her agency. As soon as we get that manual, she's got nothing.

SYDNEY: Unless she wants to prove herself.

JACK: That's the kind of hopeful thinking that will get you k*lled!

SYDNEY: I'm going in.

JACK: No, you're not.

VAUGHN: Irina Derevko has proved her value.

JACK: DO NOT TALK TO ME ABOUT THAT WOMAN'S VALUE! Of all people, you should know better!

KENDALL: We're sending you to Madagascar to retreive The Bible. (to Vaughn) You, too. Prepare to leave tonight. (to Jack) I want you to deal with Sydney's cover at SD-6. Let's move it!

(Everyone leaves. Jack stands alone, losing control. Appropriately, thunder rumbles as we cut to...)

(Night. Raining outside. Jack, in his car, meets up with a source of his in his own vehicle. Jack passes him an envelope through their open windows.)

JACK: The team will be in Madagascar in twelve hours. I'll need you to have everything in place by then.

SOURCE: On that timeframe? I have to parachute in.

(The source inspects the map.)

SOURCE: Jack, I owe you, but why thirty pounds of semtex? I could do the same job with five pounds of C-4.

JACK: I need you to make sure that if anyone enters that building, no one will survive.

(NA meeting. Everyone holds hands and forms a circle.)

LEADER: God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference. Don't forget, next week, Patty's bringing the donuts!

(Light laughter. Will gets his coat from his chair and starts to leave. Rebecca catches up with him.)

REBECCA: Hey, I had a thought. You and I could do this together.

WILL: Do what together?

REBECCA: You tell me what to do, who to contact, what to write, I could publish it all on my web page. Totally anonymous.

WILL: Rebecca--

REBECCA: And... we could hang out. Which could be kind of nice. Do you like frozen yogurt?

WILL: I already told you that the whole thing about SD-6, it was all fictional.

REBECCA: Will, come on. Now why would anyone, especially you, make up a story like that?

(Will sighs.)

REBECCA: Okay, just tell me this. Did they do this to you?

WILL: A friend of mine, her fiance was k*lled. The police, they thought it was just a random sh**ting and some guy had broken in his apartment. And I was worried about her. I decided to play hero. I was going to find out who k*lled him. And after that, I was gonna, I don't know, maybe, uh... our relationship would be different. But the more that I looked into it, the less I found. Then I had to make it up because to me, it was more important not to let her down than it was just to be honest with her. So you want to look into SD-6, hey... good luck.

(Rebecca, which probably isn't her real name, sits in front of Sloane's desk.)

REBECCA: Will Tippin shouldn't be a problem. I gave him a number of opportunities, all recorded on audio files, to restart his SD-6 investigation. Tippin never took the bait.

SLOANE: Has security section seen that?

REBECCA: Yes, and they're classifying Tippin as a non-threat.

SLOANE: Good.

(Dixon stands at the doorway. Sloane gets up and he and Dixon go to another room.)

SLOANE: Did you talk to the desk clerk?

DIXON: Yes, I did, sir. The Baranca Inn has no way of linking a back trace from an outside line to an individual room so we don't know which room it was that called your home. But we do know who was staying at the inn that night.

(Dixon hands over the list. Sloane flips through the page and stops. "Emily Sloane" is written down.)

DIXON: Is that your wife's signature?

(Madagascar, night. Sydney, Vaughn, and two other agents get out of their vehicle and start walking. Their g*ns are cocked.)

SYDNEY: Freelancer has reached the target and is headed toward position.

(At the joint task force, a young agent sits in front of the monitor as Kendall and Jack watch.)

KENDALL: We have you on screen, Freelancer.

(Vaughn's monitor beeps as they get closer.)

SYDNEY: There's the house. Freelancer's going in.

(They get closer and climb the step.)

SYDNEY: We're at the door.

(Jack points at the screen.)

JACK: Can you switch from the real-time sat radar scan to infrared?

(The agent does so.)

AGENT: Switching to infrared...

(Sydney's about to go in. She flashes her flashlight inside to see if anyone's in there. Jack quickly puts on a headset.)

JACK: Sydney, hold your entry!

SYDNEY: What is it, Dad?

JACK: The building is wired to explode. (points at the screen) See how these areas don't give off the same amount of heat as the surrounding structure? That's because they're not made of wood.

KENDALL: Well, what are they made of?

JACK: Sydney... I need you to take a look under the house. Is there a crawl space?

(Of course there is. Sydney and Vaughn get down on their bellies and peek under the house. There are several beeping expl*sives set up all around the crawlspace. Sydney gets tears in her eyes. She stares, horrified.)

SYDNEY: She lied to me.

VAUGHN: Sydney, come on. We're pulling back.

(Sydney rips off her light and starts walking with Vaughn.)

SYDNEY: If she was counting on my trust, that I would just walk in there and set off the expl*sives, then why would she help us get this far?

VAUGHN: There are enough expl*sives in there to blow this entire place, operations manual included. Your mother was using us to destroy it for her.

(Ahead of Vaughn, someone is walking toward them. Sydney doesn't see because she's still facing the house, walking backwards, staring at it.)

VAUGHN: Secure the perimeter until--

(He's whacked in the face with either a g*n or a plain old fist. Vaughn falls to the ground and Sark comes into view, having disguised himself as one of them.)

SARK: Your efficient reconnaisance work saved us the trouble of using our GPS. Thank you.

(Vaughn slowly stands up.)

SARK: (to his men) Go inside and recover the operations manual.

(Two men go to the house.)

SARK: You escaped tactical directorate after lockdown. Clearly, you had no trouble decoding the map. I'm surprised Klaus Richter was so willing to reveal his secrets. If I didn't know any better, I'd guess you had another source.

(The two men enter the house behind them and they don't have time to take two steps before the expl*sives go off and everything blows. Back in LA, Kendall and Jack watch on the screen.)

JACK: Sydney! SYDNEY!

(Vaughn looks up as everything explodes.)

VAUGHN: Where's Sark?

SYDNEY: He's gone.

(Sydney and Vaughn stand up. She clicks on her comm link.)

JACK: Sydney, are you okay?

SYDNEY: We're okay, Dad. We're coming home.

(Vaughn puts his arm around Sydney and guides her out. Kendall rips off his headset and picks up the phone.)

KENDALL: This is Assistand Director Kendall. I want Irina Derevko removed from this facility. I want her transferred to Camp Harris for unrestricted interrogation.

(He hangs up and looks at Jack.)

KENDALL: She'll be gone within the hour. You were right about her, Jack. You were right.

(Irina meditates on her bed with her eyes closed. However, she snaps them open when she hears the buzzer go off. Suddenly, three US Marshals are in her cell, grabbing her and forcing her to stand. They put shackles on her. She looks around, not understanding.)

(Upstairs, Jack watches the monitor as Irina is led away, handcuffed.)

(Self-storage building. Sydney has her back to whomever she's talking to, and she's crying.)

SYDNEY: I thought there might have been a chance to believe. To believe that she had no hidden agenda.

(She turns around, trying not to cry. And there's Jack, standing before her, looking uncomfortable and guilty.)

SYDNEY: (crying) Everything you said was right. And I was so stupid.

(Sydney breaks down, crying. Jack takes two big steps and suddenly hugs Sydney. She puts her head on his chest and sobs.)

SYDNEY: I'm sorry, Dad. I am sorry that I doubted you. I'm sorry, Dad...

(Jack hugs his daughter, looking very guilty.)