Scene: In the blood donor van, a frazzled Sydney is talking with Vaughn.
Sydney: I killed a man. Someone I cared about.
Vaughn: Noah Hicks was an assassin. If you hadn't killed him, he would have killed you.
Sydney: Maybe. But I was the one who forced the fight.
Vaughn: Hicks was a bad guy.
Scene cuts to Sydney working out at the gym, beating a large punching bag. There is a trainer there, standing behind the punching bag, coaching her through her workout. She kicks the punching bag and the trainer falls backwards from the force. The scene cuts back to Sydney and Vaughn in the blood donor van.
Sydney: But the truth is, it affects me. Never knowing who to trust, learning to expect betrayal, plotting in secrecy and hatred and anger.
A flash to more scenes of Sydney punching that bag while Sydney continues in a voice over.
Sydney: It's becoming a part of me. I am becoming what I despise.
Back at the blood donor van.
Sydney: I tell myself I got into this to bring Danny's killers to justice. The truth is, I'm more interested in revenge.
Flashing back to Sydney again, punching the bag with less control and more ferocity. She continues in a voice over.
Sydney: I thought I could stay in control. It's just gotten so twisted.
We return to the blood donor van.
Sydney: Like with Khasinau. The one tangible goal is to find him so that I can find my mother. But if I do that, if I can find his trail and track him down, it'll strengthen SD-6.
Back at the gym, Sydney has stopped punching and is heavily catching her breath. She is sweaty and her hair is sticking to her face. She removes her boxing gloves and we see white bandaged knuckles with blood seeping onto the bandags. She continues with her voice over.
Sydney: I got into this to bring them down and now I feel like I'm on their side.
Back at the blood donor van.
[Vaughn looks thoughtfully at Sydney, unsure of how to respond. He rises, moves to the counter, and shows her the SD-6 tree he showed her back in So It Begins (episode two).]
Vaughn: This is the world of SD-6 when we started. Remember?
[Sydney silently nods, tears in her eyes. Vaughn flips over a thin transparent cover showing red circles with lines through them at various places in the SD-6 tree, indicating which branches have been disabled since the map's creation.]
Vaughn: And here is what it looks like today. And this doesn't even take into account things like Baddenweiler or stealing Page 47 from Sloane's vault. Or the way you kept Khasinau from getting his hands on that ampoule. Sydney, these are incredible accomplishments.
Sydney: Khasinau is out there somewhere.
Vaughn: Yes.
Sydney: My mom is out there.
Vaughn: [sigh] We will find them.
Sydney: I have to go to class.
[Sydney smiles weakly and rises to leave. As she passes by Vaughn, he stops her and takes her hand.]
Vaughn: Wait.
[Vaughn rises and retrieves a first aid kit from one of the cupboards. He takes out an ice pack and places it on Sydney's bruised and bloody knuckles.]
Vaughn: Take care of yourself.
Sydney: Thanks.

Scene: The self-storage facility/warehouse. After a discussion with Francie about the rat in their kitchen, and Francie's comment about leaving the "good stuff" out to draw the rat out, Sydney goes to the self-storage facility/warehouse to meet with Vaughn.
Sydney: I can't believe I didn't think of this before. We can make Khasinau come to us.
Vaughn: What are you thinking?
Sydney: The vial of liquid. The Rambaldi solution.
Vaughn: The one the CIA now has?
Sydney: That's why Khasinau had a team to break into SD-6. He wants that solution.
Scene: CIA headquarters, Devlin's office. Vaughn rushes in as Devlin is packing documents up and getting ready to leave.
Vaughn: Sir, with respect to Alexander Khasinau, I'd like to suggest a course of action.
Devlin: Quickly. I've got a meeting with the senior review team from NIC.
Vaughn: Remember the ampoule? The vial of liquid we got from SD-6 that allowed us to read ge 47 of the Rambaldi manuscript?
Devlin: Uh-huh.
Back at the warehouse.
Sydney: What I'm suggesting is a black market sale. Third party.
Vaughn: Hold on. Khasinau still thinks that vial is in the SD-6 vault.
Sydney: Yes. [pause] So we say there's another one.
Vaughn: What? You think we can make Khasinau believe that?
Sydney: Yes.
Vaughn: You're going to have to make it sound pretty legit.
Sydney: I think I know how to do that.
Flashback to a meeting with Sydney, Dixon, and two other unidentified agents in the SD-6 briefing room. Sloane hands the two unknowns folders with specs on a mission. Sydney continues in a voice over.
Sydney: Last year, Sloane sent a team of agents into the Carafu Art Museum in Algiers after an Opec minister donated a collection that Sloane believed might contain Rambaldi artifacts.
Back at the warehouse.
Vaughn: Wait. Why don't I know about this?
Sydney: Because the mission failed. The agents were caught.
Flash to the two unknown agents being captured by the enemy. A car drives by and a masked man leans out and executes the agents. Sydney continues in a voice over.
Sydney: Before they could even be questioned, SD-6 had them killed.
Back at the warehouse.
Sydney: Say there was a break-in at that museum this week. It would be widely publicized. Khasinau would start to hear rumors of what was taken.
Vaughn: Including rumors of an existing second ampule.
Back at the CIA, in Devlin's office.
Devlin: Are you suggesting that I approve the theft of priceless works of art?
Vaughn: You see, sir, we would just be borrowing them.
Back at the warehouse.
Sydney: We'd return everything we steal through back channels, but not until after we've made contact with Khasinau. The whole point is to get noticed.
Back at Devlin's office.
Devlin: "We"? You're proposing to go with her?
Vaughn: I -- I know I'm not a field agent, but SD-6 isn't in on this and Agent Bristow will need backup. She trusts me. Now, the plan is to go in as insurance agents offering to lower their premium. Naturally, we would have to inspect their security system thoroughly before we commit any coverage.
Cut to Sydney in an archive room at SD-6, sitting at a laptop typing away. She continues in a voice over. Sydney: I downloaded the mission specs from the SD-6 archives. Alarm types at the museum, action point, blueprints.
Back at the warehouse.
Sydney: Everything.
Back at Devlin's office.
Vaughn: Sir, this is our best shot at Khasinau.
Devlin: Do it.
Back at the warehouse.
Sydney: You'll deal with the op tech?
Vaughn: I'll take care of it.
Sydney: I have to stop by the hospital. It's Emily -- she's not doing well.
Vaughn: Yeah, she's sick from the chemo.
[Sydney casts a surprised look at Vaughn.]
Vaughn: We heard that from the bug in Sloane's study. I'm sorry.
Sydney: Yeah. Thanks.

Scene: In Algeria. Sydney and Vaughn, speaking with French accents, walk with two museum officials and a translator.
Sydney: To make a risk analysis, we will need to test your security system.
[The translator relays this to the officials.]
Sydney: See how it operates during a shutdown of your primary generator, heating, electrical, and ventilation system.
[Translated to the officials.]
Flashing back to the plane ride to Algeria. Sydney and Vaughn are reviewing their strategy while looking at a map of the museum.
Vaughn: Once we're in, we'll need to separate. You'll go inspect the alarm grid in the exhibition space. I'll handle the shutdown from the control room with this frequency jammer. It'll keep the security cameras off for three minutes. A hundred and eighty seconds is all you've got.
In the security monitoring/control room of the museum, Vaughn is with the translator and one of the museum heads.
Vaughn: Please shut down the primary generator.
[This is relayed to the security operators. The generator is shut down. As they are distracted, Vaughn cautiously pulls out the jammer -- which looks like a pack of chewing gum -- from his pocket and activates it. The cameras are now deactivated. He activates a digital timer/watch on his wrist as the seconds tick away. The security operators start questioning why the cameras went down.]
Translator: He says he can't understand what happened. The second generator has always kept the security monitors online before.
Flashback to the plane.
Vaughn: And when I close down the ventilation system--
Sydney: The turbine in the shaft will shut down, allowing me to gain access to the vault room on "E" level.
Back in the control room.
Vaughn: Now shut down the ventilation.
[This is translated to the operators.]
In an undescript hallway in the museum, Sydney is walking with the second museum official. She tosses her briefcase at his neck. He stumbles back. She kicks him twice, he drops to the floor. Sydney runs to the ventilation shaft. She takes off her jacket and grabs a power screwdriver from her briefcase. She begins removing the ventilation shaft cover.
Back in the control room, Vaughn checks his watch nervously. It's been 20 seconds.
Returning to the ventilation shaft, we see Sydney removing the vent cover. She retrieves a grappling hook gun and shoots the hook over one of the blades of the ventilation fan. Syd tests the tension and is satisfied. She attaches the rope to her belt, looks down the long ventilation duct, and jumps. She is suspended by the grappling cord, flips a switch on her belt, and starts dropping downward.
Back in the control room.
Vaughn: And now keep the heating system offline.
[This is translated while Vaughn takes another nervous look at his watch. It has now been 49 seconds.]
Back in the ventilation shaft, we see Sydney dropping further down the shaft as she looks at a meter on the grappling cord. The meter tells her how many feet she's going down.
Flash back to the plane.
Vaughn: The vault room is located through a shaft on the east wall, sixty-seven feet below the main level.
Back in the shaft, the meter beeps as Sydney drops to sixty-seven feet. Sydney kicks open the ventilation cover and makes her way into the hallway outside of the vault room. She loosens the grappling cord, remaining connected to the cord as it remains hooked on the fan blade. She walks into the vault room. Flashback to the plane.
Vaughn: According to the document you gave me, the vault is a third-generation Handvalova.
[Sydney reaches across Vaughn, grabbing what looks like a cell phone.]
Vaughn: Careful with that. It's full of plastic explosives in case this doesn't work.
[Vaughn grabs a silver bracelet and puts it around Sydney's extended wrist.]
Vaughn: Now, in theory, not only should this crack the safe --
Back in the vault room. Sydney places the silver bracelet on vault door. Vaughn continues in a voice over.
Vaughn: It should short the circuitry for two minutes, giving you enough time to get back to the main level before the alarms go off.
[The code is cracked, and Sydney opens the vault door. She starts packing artifacts into her bag.]
Back in the control room.
[Vaughn take another nervous look at his watch. It has now been one hundred and twenty seconds.]
Vaughn: And electrical.
[This is translated. Suddenly a man bursts into the room. He is apparently the president of the museum. He is shouting something in Arabic.]
Vaughn: What is going on?
Algazabia: I agreed to a system analysis.
Translator: Mr. Algazabia is the president of the museum.
Algazabia: Not to a shutdown.
Vaughn: We are testing the security system. So far, everything is okay.
Translator: He has ordered the power restored.
Vaughn: No, no, no! Wait, wait, wait! My partner and I flew in from Paris because we were assured the possibility to make a complete offer! Now, to do that, we must run a thorough analysis! Si vous alliez pas nous laisser faire notre travail, il fallait nous le dire avant qu'on fasse tous les préparatifs pour venir venir, hein*!
Algazabia: When the system is offline, essential services go down, including fire protection. That is a risk I cannot take!
In the vault, Sydney is packing a few more items into her bag.
Back in the control room, Vaughn is infuriated and panicked.
Vaughn: I'm warning you, I will file a formal complaint with the legal department!
Algazabia: [Says something in Arabic and then continues in English.] Take him. Findhis partner. Show them the way out.
[Infuriated, Vaughn grabs his things and is escorted out. Algazabia orders the man sitting at the desk to restore the power.]
Back in the ventilation shaft, the fan blades start turning. The cord, still attached to Sydney, tightens. Syd turns and is fearful. Sydney is pulled into the shaft by the tightening cord. She is slammed into the wall of the shaft and looks up terrified. Being pulled upward, her limbs flailing as she struggles to find a way out of this mess, she spots where she had first entered the ventilation shaft. She grabs the edge of the opening, still being pulled toward the fan. She struggles to hold onto the edge of the opening while she grabs for the cord release to detach herself. She finds the release and is slammed into the wall below the vent opening. The cell phone -- with the plastic explosives -- falls from her hip. She watches it fall. Several seconds later, it explodes. A pillar of fire is rising as Sydney frantically pulls herself out of the shaft. She lands safely in the hallway just as the fire rises past the opening. She grabs her things and leaves.
In the lobby of the museum, Vaughn is being escorted out as Sydney catches up with him, once more wearing her business attire.
Sydney: What's going on?
Vaughn: We're being kicked out. I didn't have time to finish my system analysis. Did you?
[Alarms sound.]
Sydney: Barely.

Back in Los Angeles, in the self-storage facility/warehouse. Vaughn is in place as Sydney arrives.
Vaughn: I take it you've seen the news?
Sydney: It's sort of perfect, right?
Vaughn: So far, so good.
Sydney: Have you contacted the broker?
Vaughn: Yeah. I stopped in Lisbon on my way back. I told him I was hired by the men who pulled off the robbery.
Sydney: Who?
Vaughn: A splinter group of the Raslak jihad.
Sydney: How much did you say you wanted for the solution?
Vaughn: Ten million. And I gave him the sat phone and said we would only field offers during that agreed upon window.
Sydney: Good. My father disabled the SD-6 satcon intercept so there's no way Sloane can find out about this transmission.
Scene changes to SD-6's conference room. Marshall is reporting to Sloane and Dixon that based on RF transmissions, they were able to intercept the signal between Poole's cell and the com tower. This enabled them to trace Khasinau's phone number and put a tap on it. Back to the warehouse.
Vaughn: We heard from the broker this morning. Apparently, Khasinau is willing to pay double our asking price in diamonds.
Sydney: Is Khasinau going to meet us?
Vaughn: No. He's sending Sark.
Back in SD-6's conference room, Sloane is reviewing the transcript of a conversation between Khasinau and Sark. He briefs Dixon on his mission -- to intercept the sale of the second ampoule.
Returning to the warehouse.
Vaughn: The deal allows for each side to have only one principal and two backups located in the marketplace.
In the SD-6 briefing, we hear Sloane tell Dixon that "if they bring two, we bring four."
Back in the warehouse.
Vaughn: Now, when you and Sark meet, you will actually be able to test each other's merchandise, which is why we need to give him the real Rambaldi solution. After he confirms that the liquid is authentic, you'll make the deal, then switch the vial with an identical one containing colored water and a radioactive isotope we can track via satellite.
Sydney: So when Sark brings the solution to Khasinau, he'll be bringing us along as well.
Back at SD-6, Sloane explains to Dixon that their pursuit of Rambaldi is incomplete without this second ampoule and authorizes Dixon to use any and all necessary force.
Back at the warehouse.
Vaughn: Now this guy Sark might've seen you in Moscow.
Sydney: He didn't. And even if he did, he won't recognize me this time.
Vaughn: You saw what he did there and in Hong Kong, too.
Sydney: If you're suggesting we bring someone else in, no way. This is my op.
Vaughn: Okay. We leave for Denpasar tonight.

Scene: Denpasar. Sydney is being driven on a bicycle carriage. She is well disguised with a skin darkening agent on her exposed skin and dressed in sari robes that cover everything but her hands and a sari veil that covers everything but her eyes. She is wearing an earpiece/microphone. Vaughn is sitting on a balcony of a nearby building, observing through a binoculars. And unidentified agent sits at his side, holding a rifle.
Sydney: What have you got?
Vaughn: Sark's already in place.
Sydney: How many men?
Vaughn: One inside, and one at the gate next to one of ours.
Sydney: He stuck to the plan.
Vaughn: So far. If anything changes, we're ready.
[Sydney has arrived at the entrance of a courtyard. She raises her hand and the guards nod. She proceeds inside as Vaughn watches.]
Vaughn: After you both test the merchandise, and make the switch, you'll go your separate ways.
[Sark stands as Syd enters. They both greet each other in Indonesian and then take their seats.]
Sark: I thought we had an agreement that neither side would have the advantage.
Sydney: That is the agreement.
Sark: Then you have not lived up to it. You can see me, I cannot see you.
Sydney: You know who I represent.
Sark: Well, according to the broker, you are affiliated with the Raslak jihad.
[Sydney nods in response.]
Sark: A noble cause, to be sure. And a group I respect for its dedication to the principles of ancient Kunta. When I heard of this, I volunteered for the assignment because as it turns out, I'm quite familiar with the Kunta use of the latajang. If you are who you claim to be, your skills with latajang should be unsurpassed.
Vaughn: A latajang? [worried] Sydney, stick to the plan.
[Sark assembles his latajang.]
Sydney: The agreement was clear. We meet and trade.
Sark: And we will, if you are who you say you are.
Vaughn: [angry] Sydney, is he asking you to fight him?
Sark: I've already instructed my guard to stand down. If you want the diamonds, you'll do the same.
Vaughn: Sydney, don't do this! Sydney?
[Sydney rises and acceps the latajang offered her.]
Vaughn: Sydney!
[Sydney and Sark bow to each other. They fight. Sydney wins the fight, pinning him to the ground with the latajang at his throat.]
Sark: Excellent.
Sydney: Let's test the merchandise.
Sark: Let's.
[Sydney lets him up. They take their seats and make the sale. Sydney carefully places the fake ampoule into her palm while Sark tests the real one. She quickly covers the fake ampoule with a jeweler's cloth and examins the diamonds Sark had given her. Meanwhile, Vaughn scans the crowd and spots Dixon with a few SD-6 agents.]
Vaughn: Sydney, it's Dixon -- he's here!
[Silenced gunshots are heard as Dixon and his men approach the gate to the courtyard. Sark's guard and Sydney's guard fall to the ground.]
Vaughn: [frantic] Both guards are down! I repeat, both guards are down!
Sydney: I am satisfied. Do we have a deal?
[Sark ignores her.]
Vaughn: He's at the gate! Make the switch! I repeat, make the switch!
Sydney: Enough! Either we have a deal, or--
Sark: Yes. We have a deal.
[He puts the real ampoule on the table before them and extends his hand. Sydney reaches to take his hand, ready to palm the phoney ampoule to him, when Dixon enters, aiming his gun at first Sark, then Sydney.]
Dixon: Hands in the air!
[Sark takes one of the ampoules -- presumably the real one -- and places it into his jacket's inside pocket. He raises his hands as Sydney does the same.]
Dixon: Where's the vial?
[Neither Sydney nor Sark respond. Dixon steps closer.]
Dixon: I said, where's the vial?
[Dixon looks at Sydney. We see a spark of recognition as Sydney quickly looks away.]

_______________________
* Translation of what Vaughn yelled in French: "If you weren't going to let us do our work, you should have told us before we made all the arrangements to come, hey!"


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