(Night. It's raining outside. Sydney and Dixon stand on either side of Emily's coffin. An SUV backs up and two men get out, there to take the coffin.)
DIXON: I didn't have a clean shot, and I took it anyway. I'm putting in for reassignment to the directorate of intelligence.
SYDNEY: If I had the shot, I might have taken it.
DIXON: I know what Emily meant to you. I'm sorry.
(The SUV is now gone with the coffin. Dixon walks away.)
(Sloane sits behind a desk looking out at nothing. Irina stands beside the desk, a bandage on her arm.)
IRINA: Arvin? Arvin? This plan might not hold up. The CIA knows too much, they could guess why we were after the genetic database.
SLOANE: I'm not interested in the database. I want satellite footage of Tuscany. I want to know who murdered my wife.
IRINA: We both had to make sacrifices, Arvin. You won't for yourself if you stop now. We're so close to knowing what Rambaldi knew.
SLOANE: I wish I never heard that man's name.
(Irina puts her hand over his. He looks at it.)
(CIA ops center, Sydney holds a file and talks to her father.)
SYDNEY: I don't understand how we don't have a single lead on Sloane or Mom.
JACK: There's a difference between intelligence and actionable intelligence.
SYDNEY: What about the earrings Mom left me?
JACK: Analysis couldn't trace the signal source. Marshall's trying to figure out how they receive anything.
SYDNEY: Dad, we have to get ahead of them. We know they're acquiring Rambaldi artifacts, we know they tried to access a DNA database. So there must be some way to predict what they're going to do.
JACK: Sydney, I understand your frustration, particularly in light of Emily's death, but sometimes there isn't a clear move to make.
SYDNEY: Look at this. (opens the file) Elsa Caplan's debrief transcript. It's barely ten pages long. Sloane kidnapped her husband two months ago and all we have is ten pages?
JACK: Sydney, if you feel Elsa Caplan was improperly debriefed, do it again yourself.
(Outside, afternoon. Sydney and Elsa sit beside each other on a bench, watching Elsa's son Aaron play.)
SYDNEY: How's your son?
ELSA: He's keeping me sane. Even with this security detail, it's hard to feel safe.
SYDNEY: I don't want to make this more difficult for you but I need a little more of your help. I'd like to bring you in for regression therapy session. It's like hypnosis. It's completely safe, I've done it myself.
ELSA: No offense, but I don't feel comfortable with the government poking around in my head.
SYDNEY: I'll be honest with you. We're out of leads.
ELSA: What are you saying? That if something happens to him, it's my fault?
SYDNEY: No, of course not.
ELSA: These people... these people threatened to kill my son! He's still having nightmares about it!
SYDNEY: Elsa, wait...
ELSA: You come here and you tell me that I'm not doing enough?
SYDNEY: That's not what I meant, wait...
ELSA: Aaron, sweetie! Sweetie, come on, it's time to go. (to Sydney) How dare you. Sweetie, honey, it's time to go!
(Neil Caplan is chain handcuffed, sitting behind a desk that has a laptop and other things on it. Irina enters.)
IRINA: We still need your help. I just downloaded this. That's a catalog of over ten million people's DNA. We're looking for someone specific, a man. But it's encrypted. We need you to break it.
NEIL: For the past two months I haven't heard a word about my family or been given any indication whether they're dead or alive. So you can just kill me. Just kill me because there's no way in hell I'm going to help you people anymore.
IRINA: What if I told you that your family's not only alive but we let them go?
(She drops a cell phone on the desk.)
IRINA: Call your house. Call.
(He dials the phone, still handcuffed. It rings.)
ELSA'S VOICE: Hello?
NEIL: Elsa, it's me!
ELSA'S VOICE: Hello?
NEIL: Elsa! Elsa, I'm alive!
IRINA: She can't hear you. I've modified the cell phone.
ELSA'S VOICE: Hello?
IRINA: They're home. They're safe. Now you have something to live for, Mr. Caplan.
(Sydney and Vaughn are sitting up in bed together. Sydney is looking over some papers, including phone records.)
SYDNEY: Elsa Caplan was living under protective custody for the past two months. I was so convinced that we were overlooking something that I went over there and implied that she wasn't doing enough to save her husband. That was stupid.
VAUGHN: No one's harder on themselves than you are.
(They kiss a couple of times. Vaughn gets out of bed in his boxers and grabs a backpack from the floor. He unzips it and takes out a shirt.)
SYDNEY: Vaughn, I mean, okay, the backpack is getting a little ridiculous.
VAUGHN: What do you mean?
SYDNEY: (points) The middle drawer. It's yours.
VAUGHN: Yeah?
SYDNEY: It's just a drawer.
VAUGHN: I'm just saying it's a great idea.
SYDNEY: You sure?
VAUGHN: Uh-huh.
(He takes the backpack over. Sydney goes back to her phone records.)
SYDNEY: There were three calls made from the same number to Caplan's house over the last year. They came exactly four months apart, they were all made on a Monday night at the same time. And they all lasted one minute.
VAUGHN: Where did the calls come from?
(The kitchen in the Caplan house.)
SYDNEY: I need to talk to you.
ELSA: Is it Neil?
SYDNEY: Before Neil's abduction, three calls were made to your house over the last year at odd hours. We traced the number to a reporter named Gregory Ivanov. Does that name mean anything to you?
ELSA: No.
SYDNEY: We ran a background check. He was a journalist working out of Los Angeles for Itar-Tass, a news service known for giving cover to Russian intelligence agents. This man, Ivanov, we think he's one of them. We put Ivanov under electronic surveillance. An hour ago he received a fax from an unnamed source.
ELSA: I don't understand.
SYDNEY: Your husband might have been working for the Russian SVR. It's their equivalent to the CIA.
ELSA: What did the fax say?
SYDNEY: A single Russian word. "Razvyaska". It means "endgame".
(Elsa puts her back to Sydney, crying.)
ELSA: Neil's gonna die.
SYDNEY: Elsa, we don't know that.
ELSA: No. I do.
SYDNEY: Not you.
ELSA: I didn't want to be hypnotized because I was afraid you'd find out. Ivanov was my handler. Seven years ago I was ordered to seduce and marry Neil. My objective was to keep tabs on his work. I was given a tracking device to implant in his arm. But it has a secondary purpose. It was designed to release fifty milligrams of cyanide into his bloodstream. It's a suicide pill. That's what the fax was about, it means it's been activated.
SYDNEY: And you're not authorized to be telling me this.
ELSA: I just committed treason against my government because I want to get him back. I'm telling you because I love him.
(Sydney walks into the ops center, finds Jack.)
SYDNEY: I have a lead on Sloane and Irina, but we have to move immediately.
JACK: Yes, Vaughn briefed me. Elsa Caplan shouldn't be processed as a walk-in, she's an SVR agent.
SYDNEY: Which means we can classify her as a defector.
JACK: Or we can arraign her and try her for espionage. Until we make that determination, I'm holding her here.
SYDNEY: She wants to help. She implanted a tracking chip in her husband. The chip's activated by a code, if we can get a locating device we can enter the code, find him, and remove the device before it releases the cyanide.
JACK: I've already asked Marshall to look into the possibility of reverse-engineering the locator.
SYDNEY: I talked to Marshall, it'll take him three days. Caplan will be dead by then. The chip's set to release cyanide into his bloodstream in forty-two hours. There's a black market contact who deals in SVR contreband, I'm going to meet him.
JACK: I'm not willing to risk your life based on speculative intel you acquired from a Russian spy.
SYDNEY: Why would she lie?
JACK: That's precisely the question!
SYDNEY: She turned herself in!
JACK: She's not the first!
SYDNEY: Dad, I realize we're talking about a Russian agent who betrayed her husband but Elsa Caplan and my mother are not the same person. Elsa's first instinct, her first thought, was for her husband's life.
JACK: That's your assessment.
SYDNEY: If we find Neil Caplan, we find Sloane and Derevko. Isn't that worth the risk?
JACK: We'll move on Elsa's statement if, and only if, we can corroborate it.
SYDNEY: When did you start playing it safe? You let Derevko walk out of here because you thought she could lead us to Sloane.
JACK: A mistake I'm not anxious to repeat.
SYDNEY: And if Neil Caplan dies?
JACK: Then he dies.
(The hallway heading to Irina's old cell. The bars raise and Sydney walks through, glancing up at the security camera high on the wall. She approaches the glass. Elsa stands when she sees her.)
ELSA: Who has my son?
SYDNEY: Aaron's fine, he's being taken care of.
ELSA: I thought you believed me.
SYDNEY: I do believe you.
ELSA: Then why am I in this cell?
(Upstairs, Jack watches the security camera feed of Elsa and Sydney.)
ELSA: (on monitor) I risked everything, committed treason against my own government.
SYDNEY: (on monitor) It's not that simple.
(Jack picks up the nearby phone.)
JACK: This is Director Bristow. I want solitary confinement imposed on Elsa Caplan. No unapproved visitors. Understood?
(Back at the cell.)
SYDNEY: We still have forty-two hours.
(Sydney hits a button on her watch. A red light on the face of the watch brightens.)
SYDNEY: I want you to know we're doing everything we can.
(A recording of Sydney's voice starts from her watch. Sydney continues talking, keeping up the cover because she knows they're being watched.)
SYDNEY'S VOICE: Elsa, don't react. You're listening to a recorded message being transmitted to you through a directional sound projector. You're the only one who can hear this. The CIA won't sanction an extraction team to get the locator. I'm going in myself.
(Agents start heading down to the cell to take Sydney away.)
SYDNEY: I know none of this is much of a consolation to you right now, but it's the best I can do.
SYDNEY'S VOICE: I need you to give me the locator codes. Cross your arms and tap them out in Morse Code with your index finger.
(Elsa does so. Sydney watches, memorizing it. The agent approaches.)
AGENT: Back away from the glass please.
SYDNEY: (still watching the tapping) I have authorization.
AGENT: Back up now.
(Elsa's done.)
ELSA: Thank you.
(Sydney nods and leaves. Upstairs, Jack has been watching. He's suspicious.)
(Caplan's still at his desk. Irina looks at him.)
IRINA: It's been twenty-four hours.
NEIL: This database is encoded with an 8192-bit military-grade polymorphic encryption. Unless you want to kidnap a smarter genius than me, it's going to be a little while.
IRINA: Tell me what you need to speed this up.
NEIL: (sighs) I need access to a Cray supercomputer.
IRINA: I hope you're not stalling, Mr. Caplan, because your safe return to your family is no guarantee. Understand?
(Caplan grabs her, throwing her on the desk on her stomach. He takes the chain that connects his handcuffs and puts it around her throat, choking her.)
IRINA: Arghhh!
(Suddenly Neil is shot in the leg. He lets Irina go immediately, yelling and groaning in pain. Sloane stands behind them with his gun. He presses the gun against Neil's throat.)
SLOANE: A few days ago...
NEIL: My leg! Aghhh!
SLOANE: ...I would have done anything to keep you alive. Now... I don't care!
(He's about to shoot Neil. Irina, rubbing at her neck, stops him.)
IRINA: Arvin! Arvin! Arvin, don't! We still need him.
NEIL: My leg!
(He falls on the floor.)
(Living room at the Dixon household.)
DIANE: Where would you be transferred to?
DIXON: I'll be reassigned within the agency. Maybe to Texas or DC. I'd be an analyst. I'd be safe.
DIANE: You'd be happy not being in the field?
DIXON: I'd be happy as long as you and the kids are with me.
DIANE: Sloane's the man who ran SD-6, the one who lied to you for years. Marcus... you are not responsible for what happened to his wife. He put her in harm's way.
DIXON: That's not the only reason I'm putting in for the transfer. I'm doing it for us.
DIANE: (smiles) When you first told me the truth, I said I don't know who you were. I was wrong. I just didn't know what you did. I have always known who you are. You are the most decent man I know. Whatever you decide, I'll be with you.
(They kiss.)
(Francie's cell rings. She answers.)
FRANCIE: Hello?
SLOANE: It's me. Is your source still in place?
FRANCIE: Yes.
SLOANE: Good. I need something from him.
(Sydney is driving down the street. She sees a black car behind her, following her every move. In the following car, the agent speaks on comm.)
FOLLOWER: Base ops, this is Trailer. We have a twenty on the target.
JACK: (on comm) Copy. Stay with her.
(Sydney makes a u-turn and drives into a parking lot of a drugstore. She gets out and goes inside. She gets a basket and walks by a few young girls standing in the cosmetics aisle.)
GIRL 1: The Pi Delta exchange! I think Tom's gonna be there!
GIRL 2: Shut up!
GIRL 3: Ooooh, Tommy!
(They giggle. Sydney takes out her cell phone.)
(At the ops center, Vaughn and Weiss.)
WEISS: She gave you a drawer, huh?
VAUGHN: It was a gesture of convenience.
WEISS: And, uh, what did you put in it?
VAUGHN: Why do you care?
WEISS: What do you mean, why do I care? Do you know how spoiled you are? You know, a drawer! I wish I had a girlfriend to say "Hey, do you want a drawer?"
VAUGHN: I'll give you a drawer at my place.
WEISS: I don't want a drawer at your place.
(Vaughn's cell rings.)
VAUGHN: Hello?
SYDNEY: (in store) Hey, it's me.
VAUGHN: You okay? Marshall told me your father shut you down this morning.
SYDNEY: Yeah, I just need to get out. Cool down. Dad was right. Like that's news.
(Trailer, sitting outside in the black car, listens in. Sydney takes a roll of wallpaper.)
SYDNEY: I just wish there was more I could do.
VAUGHN: Well we're working on corroborating Elsa's intel.
(Sydney takes a long blonde wig and pantyhose, puts them in her basket.)
VAUGHN: Where are you?
SYDNEY: At the drugstore. Just picking up some pictures I had developed. I think there's this great one of us, you could hang it in your hall by the coat rack.
VAUGHN: What?
SYDNEY: Although the developer said some of the pictures might not come out because I used the wrong film speed or something. Next time... he said to keep in mind I should use a slower roll.
VAUGHN: (whispers to Weiss) Pen.
SYDNEY: I'll probably be another twenty minutes. I'll come over when I'm done.
VAUGHN: Yeah, okay, bye.
SYDNEY: Okay, bye.
(They hang up.)
WEISS: What?
VAUGHN: She said she wanted to hang a picture next to the coat rack.
WEISS: So?
VAUGHN: Well, she's never been to my place. I don't have a coat rack.
WEISS: Okay, well, maybe it was some kind of message. What did she say exactly?
VAUGHN: She said "Keep in mind I should use a slower roll."
(At the store, Sydney picks up a red tote bag next to the cash as a young clerk rings it all up.)
SYDNEY: Oh, and... this bag, please.
(The young women giggle, still in the cosmetics aisle. Sydney looks over at them.)
SYDNEY: Where's your bathroom?
(In the bathroom, Sydney takes the roll of wallpaper and puts it around her waist. She takes out a roll of tape and tapes it to her waist. Pinning up her hair, she takes out the pantyhose and cuts off the legs, putting the waist part over her head, holding back her hair. She puts on the blonde wig. Out in the store, Sydney walks down the aisle holding the red tote bag, wearing the long blonde wig, and wearing her new skirt with just her shirt on and jacket in the bag. She approaches the young girls who are in line at the cash.)
GIRL 1: But I like it. I like this product and I've used one of these before...
GIRL 2: You have?
SYDNEY: (accent) Sorry, I tried that one and I broke out!
GIRL 1: Oh really? Okay, thanks!
SYDNEY: (accent) Oh my... are you Sigma Gammas?
GIRL 1: Yeah!
SYDNEY: (accent) I was president of my chapter in West Virginia!
GIRL 2: No way!
SYDNEY: (accent) I swear to God!
GIRL 2: President!
SYDNEY: (accent) Yeah! It's Tuesday, you still have a lunch exchange with the Pi Delts?
GIRL 2: You want to come?
SYDNEY: (accent) Can I? Oh my God, I've been so homesick since I graduated! Thank you for inviting me!
(Minutes later, the girls walk out of the store with Sydney amongst them. The following agent watches them from his car but doesn't see Sydney. She talks with one of the girls and puts a pair of sunglasses on, moving past the car.)
(Ops center. Vaughn and Weiss are staring at their notepads.)
VAUGHN: Wait, I got it. She's using skip sequencing cypher text. Take the first letter from every word and rearrange them.
(I Should Use A Slower Roll. He circles the first letter and writes the word down: Russia.)
VAUGHN: She's going to Russia.
(Ops center. Vaughn approaches Jack.)
VAUGHN: You wanted to see me?
JACK: Sydney clearly knew I was listening to your phone convesation. She also knew that by the time I decoded her anagram, she'd be halfway to Russia. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you had every intention of reporting that fact to me. I'm giving you this consideration because when Sydney makes contact with you again, you're going to tell me exactly where she is.
VAUGHN: If I had known what she was doing, I would have tried to stop her but now that she's gone, there's nothing we can do to change her mind. She's got forty hours to find Caplan, why not support her, give her backup?
JACK: If it's not obvious to you by now, everything I do is in the service of protecting Sydney. For all we know, Elsa Caplan's working with Sloane. For all we know, she was a conspirator in her husband's abduction, which means Sydney could be walking into a trap.
VAUGHN: Or she isn't and she is about to save Neil Caplan's life.
JACK: This is not a debate. And just because you've gotten comfortable with my daughter, doesn't mean you should be comfortable with me. If you don't report your next contact with Sydney immediately, I will take action that you will regret.
[SCENE_BREAK]
(Russia. In a club, the crowd cheers and music blares. Sydney, dressed as a rhinestone cowboy including the boots and hat and shirt, enters, looking around.)
CONTACT: Okay, partners, let's get ready to ride! Okay, here you go!
(A man on a mechanical bull is all ready to go. The bull starts moving and the crowd starts cheering. The man falls off and a horn blows. Sydney approaches her contact.)
CONTACT: Get up, get up, you're no cowboy!
SYDNEY: (speaks Russian)
CONTACT: This is cowboy bar. Speak English.
SYDNEY: (Russian accent) I said we have a mutual friend.
CONTACT: I don't care. This is eight-second stable. Everybody here has ridden bull for eight seconds. Good-bye!
(He walks away. Sydney looks at the bull and mutters to herself:)
SYDNEY: Oh, God...
(Cut to the horn blowing and the crowd cheering with Sydney on the bull, doing her best at riding the thing. Everyone is cheering for her. The bull stops and she climbs off, going up to the bar once again.)
SYDNEY: (accent) Something like that.
CONTACT: Something like that.
(He offers her a drink. She takes it, wincing a little. The guy tosses the empty glass over his shoulder and it smashes.)
CONTACT: Now, champion, who is our mutual friend?
SYDNEY: (accent) Elsa Caplan.
CONTACT: When exactly did you talk to Elsa?
SYDNEY: (accent) Yesterday. We are old friends. Elsa's parents were in Kholokov's class with my parents.
CONTACT: What do you need?
SYDNEY: (accent) I need a tracking device, latest SVR issue.
CONTACT: Fifty thousand cash. US bucks only.
SYDNEY: (accent) Deal.
(He smiles, showing off his gold tooth.)
(Jack walks down the hall, the bars raising. He speaks to the guard.)
JACK: Open the door.
(He does so, letting him inside Irina's old cell. Elsa is sitting on the bed. She looks up.)
ELSA: I want to see my son.
JACK: (speaks Ukranian) There's a slight trace of Ukranian in your voice.
ELSA: (speaks Ukranian) That's where my parents were from, but I've never been there.
JACK: (speaks Ukranian) I'm curious. What was your cover, the story you told Neil Caplan. Were you placed at Caltech? A graduate student, maybe a teaching assistant?
ELSA: Look, my family is all I care about.
JACK: (smirking) Your family? The one you manufactured in order to steal classified information?
ELSA: You don't know anything about me.
JACK: You couldn't be more wrong.
ELSA: You're Sydney's father. Irina Derevko was your wife.
JACK: Which makes me an expert on someone like you. It started as a job, a duty to your country. But it required you to prostitute yourself. It was a small price to pay for servicing the motherland. At first everything went as planned. Then--surely an accident--you got pregnant. You considered terminating the pregnancy but, selfishly, you didn't. You hoped, somehow, that becoming a mother would redeem you, would absolve your guilt.
ELSA: You're wrong!
JACK: But you continued to lie and deceive both your husband and your son.
ELSA: I am not Irina Derevko!
JACK: I probably care more about your son than you do!
ELSA: That is not true!
JACK: If I have my way, you're never going to see your son again.
ELSA: Don't you dare take my son away from me! Don't you take my son away!
(Bursting into tears, Elsa cries and lowers her head into her hands. Jack looks a bit stunned.)
(Weiss and Vaughn at the ops center. Weiss's cell rings.)
WEISS: Weiss.
(Sydney is walking toward a car at the airport.)
SYDNEY: Weiss, it's me. Sorry to call you, but Vaughn's phone is probably tapped. Is he there?
WEISS: Yeah. (to Vaughn) Guess who.
(He tosses the phone to Vaughn, who catches it.)
VAUGHN: Syd?
SYDNEY: Listen to me. I got the tracker, I input the codes that Elsa gave us. I found Caplan in a building in Saria, Spain. It used to be a software company. I'm on my way now.
VAUGHN: Your father knows what you're doing and thinks you could be walking into a trap. Syd, I'm not sure he's wrong. I'm supposed to convince you to come home.
SYDNEY: I will, when I have Caplan. My father can't see straight when he looks at Elsa, he only sees my mother. And if this ends up being a stupid mistake, so be it. I believe her.
VAUGHN: Then I'm coming with you.
SYDNEY: I can't ask you to do that.
VAUGHN: You don't have to. There's an alley in Saria behind the Gandara Hotel. Meet me there.
(He hangs up and takes his suit jacket off the back of his chair.)
WEISS: Jack is going to shoot you in the face.
VAUGHN: Just give me a half-hour head start. Tell him that she called your phone and you gave it to me. We only have ten hours to find Caplan.
WEISS: If we end up sharing a cell in federal prison, I'm not giving you a drawer.
(Francie and Will are kissing on the sofa at Sydney's. He reluctantly gets up.)
WILL: Okay, I got to go.
FRANCIE: No, no...
WILL: I got to go. I'm going to be late.
FRANCIE: You work for a travel magazine, just tell them you're traveling.
WILL: I wish I could.
(They kiss one more time and he goes to the bathroom. The shower starts. With him gone, Francie puts her cup of tea down and gets his coat which is on the back of the sofa. She removes his cell from his inside pocket and takes something out, puts something back in. She places it back in the pocket and puts the jacket back.)
(At the ops center, Will is at his desk. He stands up and bangs right into a nervous Marshall.)
MARSHALL: Oooh! I'm sorry. It's Will, right?
WILL: Yeah.
MARSHALL: Hey, I've seen you in the briefing rooms. I'm kind of new around here myself. Marshall Flinkman.
WILL: Nice to meet you.
MARSHALL: Let me ask you. Do they have you parking down in the federal annex? 'Cause I have to walk, like, a half a mile to get here in the morning. I'm exhausted by the time I get to--you know, I shouldn't really complain, it's the only exercise I really get. Although, I did see a gym on the--
(Will's cell rings.)
WILL: Excuse me.
MARSHALL: Oh, uh, yeah.
(Will tries to give him the hint that he would like some privacy.)
WILL: I got, uh...
MARSHALL: That's all right, let's get some lunch or something at the CIA luncheon...
(He wanders away. Will picks up.)
WILL: Hello?
(Francie is at her computer at her house.)
FRANCIE: Hey, honey. Do you got a second?
WILL: Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, what's up?
FRANCIE: Uh, are you near a computer? I was pulling up a recipe on my laptop and it crashed.
WILL: What, you want me to pull up a recipe?
FRANCIE: Do you mind?
WILL: Sure, what's the web site?
FRANCIE: www.bouillabaissecentral.com
WILL: Okay.
(He logs in to his computer, entering his login and password.)
WILL: Okay, what do you need?
(Francie, having fixed his cell phone, can hack into Will's computer login and starts typing quickly, stalling Will while she does it.)
FRANCIE: Will you tell me what kind of fish they list?
WILL: Okay, hold on, let me find it.
(Francie brings up the surveillance feed. She smiles.)
(In Spain, Sydney waits in the alley. A car drives up and Vaughn gets out. Sydney walks up to him and they kiss then hug.)
SYDNEY: Thank you for coming.
VAUGHN: How much time do we have?
SYDNEY: Twelve minutes. Did you bring gear?
VAUGHN: (smiles) Did I bring gear?
(Minutes later, they assemble their guns.)
VAUGHN: I spoke to Weiss after we landed. Satellite's picked up five figures inside, the building's basement level. North wing.
SYDNEY: Sloane could be a block from here. My mother.
VAUGHN: If they are they won't surrender to us.
SYDNEY: I know.
VAUGHN: What about the perimeter?
SYDNEY: No activity. Roof access will be our best bet.
VAUGHN: Not that I'm a huge fan of you disobeying the CIA but that was pretty good, the way you got away.
(He laughs a little. Sydney's embarrassed.)
SYDNEY: Thank you.
(Sloane is watching footage on his laptop. He stops it, plays again. He closes his eyes and plays it again, watching Emily fall. He backs the footage up and sees the shooter. Dixon shoots and conveniently rolls over on his back, looking up at the satellite and giving Sloane a good look at him. Sloane pounds his fist on the table in anger and picks up his cell, dials.)
SLOANE: Yeah. It's me. I need you to do something else for me.
(Caplan is typing, his leg bandaged. Sark sits in front of the desk, calmly reading a magazine.)
NEIL: So, who are you, anyway? What are you, twenty-two, twenty-three? What are you doing working for a guy like Sloane? What do you expect to get out of all this?
SARK: I was sent to school in England at a very young age. Out of necessity, one becomes self-reliant and perhaps prematurely ambitious. I'm like anyone, Mr. Caplan. What I want is that which I never had.
NEIL: You're gonna kill me, aren't you? You wouldn't have shared any of that stuff with me if you expected me to live.
SARK: I suggest you keep working.
(On the roof, Sydney and Vaughn have their guns on the ready as they descend a staircase. Inside the building, they run down the stairs and down a hallway. They stop at a corner.)
SYDNEY: I'll go around.
VAUGHN: Syd!
(Behind her, one of the guards. She fights with him, Vaughn hitting him with his gun. Sydney knees him in the chest. Behind them, another guard. Sydney shoots him. Inside the room, Caplan and Sark hear the gunshot. Sark addresses the guards in the room in a foreign language. He stands up, gets his gun out, and looks over at Neil. He removes the disc from the computer Neil was working on. Sydney and Vaughn walk through another room with their guns. Another man finds Vaughn and yells at him.)
GUARD: Alto!
(Speaks more Spanish. Vaughn raises his hands in surrender. Sydney comes from behind the guard, elbows him and hits him with her gun. They run into the room with Neil, who is now alone.)
SYDNEY: Is Arvin Sloane in this building? Or Irina Derevko?
NEIL: No, no, no, no, but, uh, a blond guy just took off.
SYDNEY: Sark.
NEIL: That's him, yeah.
VAUGHN: I'll go after him.
(Vaughn leaves. Sydney takes out a medical kit, putting on rubber gloves and taking out a scalpel.)
NEIL: What the hell's that for?
SYDNEY: Mr. Caplan, you have to listen to what I'm going to say. You won't want to believe me, but you have to or you will die in less than sixty seconds.
NEIL: What?!
(In a hallway on the way out, Vaughn spots Sark running away.)
VAUGHN: Freeze!
(Sark turns around and shoots at Vaughn, and then continues to run. Vaughn shoots after him and follows.)
(Back in the room.)
SYDNEY: Your wife, Elsa, she works for Russian intelligence.
NEIL: I know. Six years ago the NSA recruited me. They, uh, they told me I was a target. They had intel that I was gonna be approached.
(He sees a guard enter the room behind Sydney. Picking up the gun off the desk, Neil shoots the guard dead. Sydney is shocked.)
SYDNEY: You're NSA?!
NEIL: They recruited me out of Caltech. Even though, if you ask them, they'll deny any affiliation with me. I knew Elsa was a spy the day we met.
SYDNEY: Okay, look, your wife injected you with a cyanide caplet. We have to remove it right now!
NEIL: What?
SYDNEY: Listen to me!
NEIL: She wouldn't do that!
SYDNEY: I came this far because of this!
NEIL: She wouldn't try and kill me!
SYDNEY: She didn't, her handlers did!
(Vaughn enters the staircase leading to the roof. He looks up and sees Sark climbing onto the roof. Vaughn gets up there moments later and looks around at the view. Sirens wail in the distance. Sark is gone.)
VAUGHN: Damn it!
(Back in the room.)
NEIL: When the hell did she implant me with this thing?
SYDNEY: Right after you met. Mr. Caplan, you have less than thirty seconds before you die. We have to remove this right now! Give me your left wrist. Okay, look away.
NEIL: No, I'm okay.
(Sydney slices his arm with the scalpel. Blood oozes out.)
NEIL: Ahhh! Ahhh! Oh, God, come on...
SYDNEY: Hang on, hang on...
NEIL: Ahhh... God, ahhhh...
(Sydney gets it out.)
NEIL: Thanks.
(In LA, Sydney escorts Neil into Irina's old cell. Hobbling along with the help of a cane, he enters the cell and sees Elsa. They stand there for a moment and then hug. They kiss.)
ELSA: I love you.
NEIL: I love you, too.
(Upstairs, Sydney and Jack.)
SYDNEY: I know I'm not in a position to ask you for any favors but whatever you plan on doing to me, just please leave Vaughn out of it.
JACK: Vaughn wil be escorting the Caplans to Bambridge Island. I've granted Elsa defector status. She is not Irina Derevko.
SYDNEY: We downloaded the DNA database Caplan decrypted from the computer he was working on. We finally have a lead on Sloane and Derevko.
JACK: Good. But, Sydney, if you go around me again I'll have you transferred and finding them will no longer be part of your job description.
(Semi-swanky restaurant. Double date evening with Sydney, Vaughn, Dixon and Diane.)
DIANE: I owe you an apology.
SYDNEY: Diane, you don't have to explain anything.
DIANE: Oh, no, let me say this. When Marcus first told me about SD-6, I felt so betrayed and in part I blamed you for that. Your world has these rules that force good people to lie even to those they're closest to. Before I could accept that, I had to understand it.
DIXON: I rescinded the transfer order. Diane rescinded the order.
(They hold hands happily.)
(Jack walks through the ops center. Marshall runs up to him.)
MARSHALL: Uh, Mr. Bristow! Mr. Bristow!
JACK: Yes, Marshall?
MARSHALL: Hi, listen, I was doing some spelunking on the CIA network, mapping it, really, just for kicks, and well, you can relax because the Death Star plans are not in the main computer!
(Jack darts him a look.)
MARSHALL: Anyway, I, uh, did find a bandwidth discrepancy. At first I thought it was a trojan virus someone implanted on the system but unless it was locked into a perpetually renaming RAM cache, then it wouldn't--
JACK: Marshall! Please, English.
MARSHALL: I found a massive information hemorrhage. Someone without authorization accessed the system and downloaded ten gigabytes worth of satellite footage from Tuscany.
JACK: Tuscany?
MARSHALL: Yeah!
JACK: We're on a secure system. How did they hack in?
MARSHALL: Well, they didn't. It came from this office.
(Outside the restaurant, the happy couples wait for the valet to get their vehicles.)
DIXON: No, there is no way that the agency has season tickets for the Lakers!
VAUGHN: I'm telling you, four seats, twelve rows back.
DIXON: You know, by this point, I don't know why I'm surprised, but I am.
(The valet gets Diane's SUV to the curb.)
DIANE: I'll see you at home after I get the kids.
DIXON: Mm-hmm.
(They kiss.)
DIANE: Good night.
SYDNEY: Good night, Diane.
VAUGHN: Good night.
DIANE: Good night.
(She gets in her SUV and starts to drive out of the parking lot. Dixon's vehicle is at the curb.)
DIXON: It feels good, having it out in the open. See you tomorrow.
(He gets in and before closing the door, he hops out to tell Sydney something.)
DIXON: Oh... (laughs) By the way--
(An explosion knocks them all to the ground. Diane's SUV blows up with her inside. The vehicle flips over, engulfed in flames.)
DIXON: Diane! DIANE!
(Nearby in her own car, Francie puts her detonator away, having finished the job. She drives off.)
Plan: A: Sydney; Q: Who defies her father in her attempt to rescue Neil Caplan? A: kidnapped scientist Neil Caplan; Q: What does Sydney try to rescue? A: Sloane; Q: Who wants revenge for the assassination of his wife? A: revenge; Q: What is Sloane seeking? A: Dixon; Q: Whose wife is Sloane trying to kill? A: Meanwhile, Allison; Q: Who manipulates Will for his agency connections? A: Francie; Q: What is Allison's guise? A: an unsuspecting Will; Q: Who does Allison manipulate for his agency connections? Summary: Sydney defies her father in her attempt to rescue kidnapped scientist Neil Caplan, while Sloane, seeking revenge for the assassination of his wife orders that Dixon's wife be taken out. Meanwhile, Allison in the guise of Francie manipulates an unsuspecting Will for his agency connections.