บท 9: The Web Of Lies
The dim light of the office casted shadows across the faces of Sarah, Jack, and the director, who is an imposing figure with a sharp jawline and steely eyes that had seen more than his fair share of deceit. They sat around a polished oak table, scattered with the documents of Jack's research, classified documents, and photos that chronicled the lives of the remaining sleeper agents, hidden within the folds of American society. "Time is not on our side," the director said, his voice cutting through the tension in the air. "If we're going to carry this out, we need a plan that's airtight." Sarah glanced at Jack, their shared determination solidifying a pack forged in desperation.
"We need to make the deaths of the agents— myself included— believable," she replied, her tone steady. Her memories of her life and some suppressed memories flashed painfully in her mind; her facade, her identity, it all felt like it was melting away. "What about the public records? Those can't be faked." Jack leaned forward, his fingers steepling in thought. "We'll need to create a narrative. A string of incidents- accidents, disappearances— leading up to the confirmed deaths. If it looks like a wave of tragedies, people will attribute it to coincidence rather than raising suspicion," Jack said, breaking down the plan, the director nodded in agreement. We can manipulate new cycles, plant disinformation. We control the narrative. For every agent and their families, we craft the story that fits. But we must be careful; the fallout will be catastrophic if the Russian operatives catch wind of our plans," the director added.
"What about Amanda?" Jack asked, his brow furrowing. "You will follow her, find out what she knows. If there's even a shred of evidence linking her to the Russians, we have to act fast," the director said. Sarah felt a cold prickle of fear at the mention of Amanda being a Russian spy. "Do you really believe she is a spy? How do we know she isn't on to us already?" Jake met her gaze, his expression unwavering. "That's why I need to be careful. I'll shadow her, figure out what she's up to. If we can get proof, we can expose her to the director and dig deeper into her life." The director chimed in again, his fingers steepling like Jack's. " Very well, if Amanda is indeed a Russian spy, we need to play our cards right. Most importantly we need to find out if she has any leads on Mike."
Sarah's stomach tightened at the mention of her ex-boyfriend who had been kidnapped by the Russian government just a week ago. The thought of Mike being held captive and tortured, seared her insides like a brand. "If there's a chance Amanda can lead us to him, we can't hesitate. I'm not willing to leave him in their hands," Sarah said seething with anger. "Then it's settled," the director said, authority lacing his voice. "We commence our operation tonight. Sarah, you'll need to be at the forefront of this deception. If your death needs to be reported, then it must happen in a location that makes sense, we can possibly plant an anonymous tip about a car accident."
"An accident could work," Sarah says gnawing at her lip. "But we need to think of background stories for me and Jack. We need something believable, so no one suspects a thing or questions it, but we also are gonna need to change my appearance drastically." "Leave it to me," Jack interjected. "I can arrange for a facial specialist to modify your features just enough to throw them off. You'll wear a wig, even change your mannerisms if need be. We'll create a new story for you."
Realizing the truth of Jack's intentions, Sarah felt a surge of gratitude amidst the cold dread of their situation. He was willing to go to any lengths to protect her. "Will that keep us safe from Amanda and the Russians? If she gets suspicious that I'm not...well, me...she'll unravel something is wrong quickly." "Misdirection is key," the director said. "I'll have Lieutenant Johnson take you and Sarah to one our safe houses that only I know about and tell Amanda that we are moving forward with killing Sarah and the other agents.We will disable the tracking devices and the alert we placed in all agents, which notifies us if any of the agents have awoken before they are suppose to." Jack's fingers twitched in anticipation, his mind racing with the possibilities.
"Once we have Amanda on the hook, we can reel her in without her suspecting a thing. It's about controlling the flow of information until we can strike. Everything hangs on our success," Jack states. Sarah nodded, her heart pounding. "But we need to move quickly. For Mike's sake. Time is running out, while we're planning, he could be suffering," Sarah said, refusing to let the tears that welded up in the corner of her eyes fall. The director stood up, crossing his arms. "Then let us prepare. Jack, you'll follow Amanda tonight after her work hours. Sarah, we will fake your death almost immediately after you leave. We will meet again in 24 hours to assess our progress."
As they began to disperse, Jack locked eyes with Sarah. He reached out, taking her hand, "we'll find a way to save him, I promise." With a steely resolve in her heart, Sarah squeezed his hand tight. They were already deep within a tangled web of lies, but with a friend like Jack beside her and the expertise of the director backing their every move, she believed they could forge a path through the chaos and rescue Mike from the clutches of the enemy.
As they separated, Sarah knew that the stakes had never been higher. The game they were playing was dangerous, and any misstep could cost them everything. But with every moment that ticked away, Sarah's resolve deepened; they would turn the tide against the Russians, and they would expose the covert betrayal from within before it's too late. The director called for lieutenant Johnson to come and take Sarah and Jack to the safe house. "Don't tell anyone about this," the director said, handing him the coordinates. "Will do, sir," Lieutenant Johnson replied.
All of them exited the director's office, walking past Amanda's and then heading to their destination. Back in Amanda's office, Amanda was thinking of a way to dispose of Sarah without getting caught and blowing her cover. As she looked up from her desk she could see Lieutenant Johnson escorting them out. "I wonder where he is taking them?" Amanda thought to herself. "Let me just go ask and find out," as she gets ready to leave, the director enters her office. "Oh Director Birmingham," she says startled, " I was just about to go and see you," she said with a half smile. "Well no need since I'm already here." "What did you need to see me about?" He asked authoritatively.
"Oh.. Well...," Amanda said, still stammering over her words. "Cut to the chase Amanda," Director Birmingham said, snapping his fingers and sitting down on the couch in her office. "I was just coming to see you about the Sarah Jenkins situation." "Are we still neutralizing her?" She asked probingly. Director Birmingham caught on to her body language, quickly assessing her every word and movement. "I informed her and sergeant Taylor that the decision is final and we will be moving forward with her disposal, as well as moving forward with the disposal of the remaining sleeper agents," The director said firmly, waiting and watching her reaction.
Amanda slightly smirks trying to contain her excitement, as the U.S government has fallen right into their trap and their plans are falling right into place. "Well that's unfortunate," she said, barely containing her glee. "I tried to explain to both of them that nothing could be done and any conversation would be futile," Amanda said, as she turned around and walked towards her desk, a satanic smile crept across her face, director Birmingham catching a glimpse of it in the mirror.
"I will have her file for you to shred by the end of day tomorrow," the director said while taking his leave. "Very well Director." Amanda replied. Once the director was out of Amanda's line of sight and ear shot, "Amanda is definitely hiding something, I just hope we could find out before it's too late," he said to himself as he proceeded back to his office. Amanda immediately called her point of contact.
"Segodnya vecherom yeye sobirayutsya ubit', a takzhe prodolzhit' rabotu po ubiystvu ostavshikhsya spyashchikh agentov," Amanda says in russian (Translation: they are going to kill her tonight as well as proceed to move forward with killing the remaining sleeper agents.) "Khorosho vse idet po planu," he said venomously. (Translation: Good, everything is going according to plan.) "chto naschet togo cheloveka, kotorogo ty pokhitil? Chto ty sobirayesh'sya s nim delat'? Amanda asked. (Translation: what about the man you kidnapped? What are you going to do with him?) "YA posmotryu, smogu li ya poluchit' ot nego bol'she informatsii, a yesli net, to izbavlyus' ot nego zavtra," he said menacingly as he smiled evilly. (Translation: I'm going to see if we can get any more information out of him and if not I'll dispose of him tomorrow.) "khorosho, ya pridu zavtra s dokazatel'stvom yeye smerti kak tol'ko podtverzhu eto," she says before hanging up. (Translation: okay I'll come by tomorrow with proof of her death as soon as I confirm it.)
Amanda hung up the phone and began to quietly celebrate. "Once this is finally over, I can go back home," she said to herself. In the midst of her celebration, Amanda was oblivious to the wire tap device that the director had placed under her coffee table, allowing him to overhear her entire conversation. Back in his office, the director intently listened to Amanda's phone call, seeing if there were any secret words he needed to decipher. "Well played Amanda," the director laughed to himself.
Sal sat outside Sarah's house patiently waiting for her to return home. "Is this bitch ever coming home? It's been hours," he angrily said to himself. He picked up and called the two men he placed on watch at Jack's house to see if they would show up there. "Hey boss," one of the DTS members said as he answered the phone. "Did they show up there?" Sal aggressively asked. "No boss, they haven't shown up here either," he replies back. Sal angrily squeezed his phone in his hand, almost breaking it.
"We need to find them NOW!" He barked. "We are running out of time and if I have to die you both will die with me," he said coldly."Find them!" Sal says through gritted teeth. "Yes boss understood," he replies back before the phone hangs up. Sal throws his phone and aggressively punches the steering wheel, as he kept repeating, "Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, FUCK!!!" "I'm as good as dead if i don't bring either one of them back by tomorrow night." He says out of breath. He proceeds to call one of his informants that he placed into Mr. Harrington's mafia gang to get his location. "Hello sir," he answered.
"Do you have a location for Mr.Harrington?" Sal said, cutting right to the chase. "No sir I do not," he said as fear seeped into his veins. "Mr. Harrington hasn't been home, to meetings-he only calls in instead, and to any of his other offices, or his known secret hideouts. We believe he has fled the country, as a large sum of money has been transferred to an overseas account, he added. Sal gripped the steering wheel so tight his knuckles turned completely white. "Find out exactly where he is by the end of the night, or I'll have your head on a platter," Sal growled, barely containing his anger.
The DTS member swallowed hard, "Yes sir will do." Sal sat in complete silence after hanging up the phone, his blood pressure rising, and his mind reeling at the thought of failing and the consequences that came with it if he did. "I need to find them by tonight or I'm screwed, he said to himself as he drove away.
Sarah, Jack, and Lieutenant Johnson all loaded up in the truck. As they head to the coordinates that the Director gave them, while driving, Jack receives a phone call. Looking down at his phone he saw the call was coming from the director. "Hello," Jack answered. "Amanda knows where Mike is and she is working with the Russians and they are going to kill Mike tomorrow after questioning," The director quickly stated. Jack's eyes widened as he looked over at Sarah.
"You need to start tailing her immediately, she'll be leaving the office in about an hour," he added. "Okay sir," Jack said, still in shock as he hung up the phone. Sarah looked up at Jack concerned, "what was that all about?" She asked. "Amanda knows where Mike is and she is an undercover Russian spy. Also they are planning to dispose of Mike tomorrow," he stated, still in shock. Lieutenant Johnson immediately pulled over the car. "What?! What did you just say?" Lieutenant Johnson shockingly asked, while Sarah is still trying to process what Jack just said.
"So..so.. so.. yo.. you.. were right?" Sarah stuttered as her body heated up with anger. "Unfortunately, yes" Jack says while placing his hand over hers to calm her down. "Sooo.. Agent Amanda is a russian spy that has infiltrated our program, and you knew!?" Lieutenant Johnson asked, his words dripping with anger. "I didn't know fully, but I had my suspicions since this morning when we met, her body language was just off," Jack says defensively. "Okay so what are we going to do?" Sarah interjects. "Director Birmingham said she will be leaving in an hour and he wants me to tail her immediately so we can get the location of Mike and the other russian spies." "I'm coming with you," Sarah abruptly interrupted before Jack could finish. "Sarah you can't do that, you're supposed to be "dead"!, and we still need to take out the tracker in your body and place it into the other person's body."
"Also the facial recognition specialist won't reach the safe house for at least an hour, maybe 45 minutes, and Amanda will be gone by then," Jack says while looking in Sarah's eyes. "I don't care I can't let that bitch slip away especially if knows where Mike is," she says, snatching her hands away. "Look I know you want to take Amanda and the Russians down yourself, but we need to stick with the plan or everything could fall apart," Jack said gingerly, taking Sarah's hand. "Jacks right, we can't let this plan fail," Lieutenant Johnson added.
Sarah took a deep breath, slowly letting it out before looking up at Jack and Johnson. "You both are right, if we want to succeed and save Mike's life we cant deviate from the plan," Sarah says, as she returns Jack's kind gesture. "Okay here is what we are going to do since we are only 15 minutes out from the safe house and around 25 minutes away from the hidden government building.
We are going to drive to the safe house, I will drop you and Johnson off, you both will complete the task of faking Sarah's death, and I will take the car and follow Amanda to see if she will lead me to the Russian spies and Mike. Once I get that information I will head back to the safe house and we will go save Mike together. Deal?" Jack says, looking at Sarah and Lt. Johnson. "Deal," both Sarah and Lt. Johnson said in agreement. "Perfect, now let's head to the safe house, I'll call the facial reconstruction specialist and tell them to meet us there," Jack said as he dialed the specialist number.
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