Sydney must undergo an extensive lie detector test to satisfy Sloane's frantic search for the SD-6 mole. With nemesis Anna Espinosa following her every move, Sydney is told to find out the truth about the connection that a clock made by one Giovanni Donato for Rambaldi in the 16th century may have to the 500-year-old prophetic Rambaldi sketch with the binary digits on the back. The mystery of Kate Jones deepens as Will continues to investigate Danny's death when he finds a piece of jewelry in her abandoned car that works as a microphone to contact someone else. Sydney accidentally discovers that some books her father gave her mother as a present have 5-character rows of Cyrillic letters imprinted at the margins, which seems to prove that he indeed had some kind of connection with the KGB.
SYDNEY: (voice over) I'm leaving for England tonight. SD-6 has traced the Rambaldi artifact to the engineering science department at Oxford. K-Directorate's on this. I need to act fast, so that Ana doesn't get there first. (Oxford, night. A van pulls up outside the university. Inside, Dixon sits behind a computer and there are monitors everywhere. Sydney dresses, wearing a red wig.) DIXON: So, FTL found the Rambaldi artifact in Tunisia. Why'd they send it here? SYDNEY: Analysis. The engineering department is among the best in the world. DIXON: Remember, the lens has to be within two feet of the key card to get a reading. SYDNEY: Got it. How do I look? DIXON: For the record, that's a question you never have to ask. SYDNEY: (smiles) FTL agents are here posing as campus security. Watch your back. DIXON: You, too. (She gets out.) (Inside the party -- a waiter mingles with a tray of drinks. Classical music plays.) PROFESSOR BLUME: For a journalist, you have quite a remarkable grasp of engineering principles. What is your background? ANA: My family was in demolition. PROFESSOR BLUME: Really? (She smiles.) ANA: So, is it true that your department's just received ancient technology from Tunisia? PROFESSOR BLUME: Who told you that? ANA: Well, you just did. Ha ha ha! I'd love to see your lab. (Sydney enters. Dixon talks to her from the van via a transmitter in her ear.) DIXON: See anybody, Syd? SYDNEY: I've spotted Professor Hoyt. Do you see anything? DIXON: Get closer. I can't tell if he's got the card on him. (Sydney moves closer.) SYDNEY: Anything? DIXON: Yeah, the key card's in his breast pocket. But you're too far away, get him to turn towards you. SYDNEY: (British accent) Excuse me, Professor Hoyt? PROFESSOR HOYT: Yes? (A device on Sydney's purse scans his pocket. Dixon sees it from the van's monitor, it's like x-ray vision.) DIXON: Hold that... for thirty seconds. SYDNEY: I'm Molly Zertan, with the Marissa Foundation. We're very interested in your current study. PROFESSOR HOYT: Really? Which one? (In the van, Dixon opens a file folder and glances through it.) DIXON: Hoyt is currently studying the crashworthiness of transportation vehicles. SYDNEY: Your study on crashworthiness of transportation vehicles. PROFESSOR HOYT: Oh, wonderful. Yes, yes. Well, of course, getting funding is very difficult, particularly in today's economic climate. DIXON: The duplicate key card's printing! (Sydney sees Ana walk by with Professor Blume. Ana raises her glass to Sydney and smirks.) SYDNEY: That is so true... DIXON: Got it, Syd. I'm on my way. (Dixon takes the new duplicate key card and leaves the van.) SYDNEY: (to Hoyt) Excuse me. (Dixon approaches, posing as a waiter, with a tray of drinks. He gives Sydney a napkin that has the duplicate card inside and a drink.) SYDNEY: Contact university security, tell them someone's trying to break into the engineering lab. DIXON: Then the FTL guards will know. SYDNEY: Ana's here. DIXON: Got it. Calling the guards now. (In the corridor outside the party near the lab, Professor Blume lays unconscious -- possibly dead. Ana stands over him. She takes his wallet, gets the key card, and walks down some stairs. She's stopped by two guards.) GUARD 1: Freeze, right there! ANA: Oh, thank God! Someone's done something terrible to Professor Blume! (Ana kicks him, slams the guard against the wall. She blocks a punch, kicks one in the stomach and kicks the other guard. One guard gets her from behind and tries strangling her. She struggles. Just then, Sydney walks by on her way to the lab. Ana and Sydney make eye contact. Sydney raises her glass to Ana and smirks. Sydney gets to the door of the lab. She swipes the key card Dixon made, and takes her glass of champagne and empties it over the keypad. It crackles and fizzles, shorting out. Ana runs up, but Sydney is inside. The door is locked, and Ana can't use her key card because Sydney shorted it out. Sydney smirks from inside the lab, and kisses the door leaving her lipstick imprint like Ana did to her before. Ana is seething. Sydney runs inside the lab.) SYDNEY: I'm in the lab. I don't see anything. (She runs down the lab and sees an ancient clock sitting on the counter. She takes it.) SYDNEY: Okay, I got it! (Outside, Ana tries her card but it doesn't work. She takes her gun and shoots the window in the door several times. Sydney takes the clock and kicks a window out. She climbs through. Ana finally enters, runs, sees the clock's already gone. She runs to the window just in time to see the SD-6 van drive away, tires squealing.) (Credit Dauphine. Sloane's office. Jack enters.) JACK: Got a minute? SLOANE: Of course. (Jack drops a newspaper in front of Sloane.) JACK: Eloise Kurtz. She was found dead two days ago in Echo Park. She was a new promotion at SD-6. SLOANE: Yes, I know. JACK: You retired her, didn't you? SLOANE: I think the more pressing question is, why did you send her to talk to a reporter without running it by me first? JACK: I wasn't keeping it from you, but this reporter-- SLOANE: Will Tippin. JACK: Yes. He's a friend of Sydney's. He was looking into the name Kate Jones, one of her aliases. I tasked Eloise Kurtz to lead him down a dead end so he'd drop it. SLOANE: You underestimated Tippin and Agent Kurtz's lack of field experience. Put us all at risk. What are you doing using a junior agent, Jack? JACK: Talk to McCullough. I used Eloise Kurtz based on his assessment of her field ability. He gave her his highest rating. In any case, I had contingencies, all of which are now irrelevant. SLOANE: Tell me something. How did Tippin get a lead on the Kate Jones alias in the first place? JACK: I don't know yet, but I'm looking into it. SLOANE: Well, your efforts notwithstanding, that reporter may be a casualty of his own curiosity. JACK: I'd consider that a last resort. I know you want what's best for Sydney, and if at all possible, we should spare her the pain of losing someone else. SLOANE: Well, how do you suggest we proceed? JACK: Leave it to me. I'll get Tippin off the story. SLOANE: And if you can't? JACK: Then I'll kill him myself. (Sydney walks her professor.) PROFESSOR: This is unacceptable. You've missed classes-- SYDNEY: I know, but when I-- PROFESSOR: ...Turned in papers late... SYDNEY: Yeah, listen, my job-- PROFESSOR: Sydney, enough about your job. This has only been getting worse since we spoke about this last. Now, if you want to be a banker, be a banker. SYDNEY: I understand, and look, this probably isn't the best written analysis of Fitzergald you've ever read, but come on. This is not a D paper. PROFESSOR: There's no spirit in this paper, no soul. Now, you fix it by Friday, or I'll have to re-evaluate your placement in this program. (After, Sydney enters a parking garage. As she walks to her vehicle, she becomes aware of a man standing nearby, apparently talking on his cell phone.) MAN: (on phone) Dr. Wilkinson. Yes, I'll hold. Hello, Dr. Wilkinson here. How are you? (Sydney walks slowly.) MAN: (on phone) Of course, yes. I'd like to discuss about the meeting last n ight. (Sydney takes out her cell phone, still walking away from the man. She sees that there is no service... the man's pretending to talk on his phone.) MAN: (on phone) A late lunch... (Sydney, while walking, turns behind a car. The man, watching Sydney, begins walking to see where she went.) MAN: (on phone) Yes... (He puts the phone down temporarily, walking. He goes behind the car where Sydney went.) MAN: (on phone) Yes, yes. Let's talk about that meeting, yes. That's what we talked about. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Hold on a second... (He turns around, looking. Sydney grabs a pipe from up above, and swings down, kicking the man. He falls, spread eagle on the ground. Sydney straddles him and takes his gun, pointing it at his waist.) SYDNEY: Who are you? WHO ARE YOU?! (Credit Dauphine. Sydney and Sloane.) SLOANE: Security section said you assaulted one of its officers. SYDNEY: This wasn't security section. It wasn't standard procedure. This was a tracker and he has been constant. I have seen him three times in the past two days and I found this under my car. (She unveils a small device used for tracking, I guess.) SYDNEY: If there is something you want to know about me, then you ask me! SLOANE: The sanctity of this agency requires the sacrifice of some personal freedoms. SD-6 is stepping up security. McCullough assigned the tracker, that's his province. Now, we have a briefing. Do you think you can focus? SYDNEY: Yeah. I think I can. SLOANE: Good. (Briefing with Sloane, Marshall, and Sydney.) SLOANE: The clock you retreived was designed by Giovanni Donato. He died in 1503, his initials are engraved on the bottom. Now, Donato was a master clock-maker, but more importantly, he was the only man Milo Rambaldi ever collaborated with. There is a single reference to Donato in our Rambaldi archive. Apparently, Rambaldi commissioned the clock himself. SYDNEY: And because of Rambaldi's involvment, you think it's more than just a clock. SLOANE: That was Rambaldi's style. Hiding codes in designs within his artwork. Go, Marshall. MARSHALL: (stands) Um, now, I know we're all a bit hungry for lunch, so I'll try to use the maximum amount of brevity possible. And, okay, now, as a clock, this piece was far ahead of its time. Margin of error less than one second per decade, and the weirdest part about it is this gear assembly. I mean, part of it is that it doesn't seem to have any real purpose. SYDNEY: This number on the back... what is it, a date? MARSHALL: Well, we're analyzing that. You know what we found so far? Nothing happened that day. Literally. It's the one day in history that basically zero things occurred. SLOANE: We have a very good reason to believe that this clock will reveal another piece of the Rambaldi puzzle. The problem is, the clock doesn't work. Without specific instructions, we can't risk damaging it. We've located a direct descendant of Donato in Positano. Luckily, he went into the family business. Your mission, Agent Bristow, is quite simple. Take the clock to Donato, get him to fix it, and bring it back. SYDNEY: That's it? SLOANE: That's it. (Out in the main room at SD-6, Sydney walks up to Jack.) SYDNEY: Dad. Do you have a few minutes? JACK: Yes, of course. Could you just-- SYDNEY: Somewhere quiet. Somewhere else. (They enter a room.) JACK: In here. (Sydney closes the door with a remote. They sit down. Jack takes out a thing that's about the size of a pen. He flips the lid.) JACK: Signal jammer. We're okay for sixty seconds, they'll think it's radio interference. Talk quickly. SYDNEY: Sloane's having me followed. I confronted the guy last night, I thought it might be K-Directorate looking for revenge after Oxford. I talked to Sloane, he insists it's all routine. Should I be worried? JACK: I'm one of only five agents in this office who knows the truth about SD-6. I've had Sloane's trust, but lately, I haven't been informed of much at all. SYDNEY: So, what does that mean? JACK: Two things concern me. While you were in Romania, Marshall noticed some computer abnormalities. I assumed it was just a system error, but it's possible he's realized that the SD-6's network's been compromised. SYDNEY: Could Sloane trace it to C.I.A.? JACK: I don't know. The second thing, Carl Dreyer is coming in from op comm to upgrade the biometric scanners. But if Sloane suspects a double agent, Dreyer is the one he'd turn to. If that's the case, the first thing Dreyer would do is give each of us a functional imaging test. SYDNEY: What's that? JACK: Lie detector test. SYDNEY: I studied the C.I.A. instruction book on how to take a successful LDT. JACK: This isn't like that. This test monitors variations in blood flow in the brain. It's very difficult to deceive. Tell your handler Vaughn he needs to prepare you for this. If he can't, he'll get someone who can. SYDNEY: Dad, you seem nervous. (The signal jammer beeps.) JACK: Well, I think that should be fine. Thanks for coming to me. SYDNEY: Of course... (Jack leaves.) (Will's office. He eats lunch while talking on the phone. His boss walks down the hall next to his office.) WILL: No, I think that's nice. Yeah, of course. No, I think he's going to love it, yeah. Yeah. I'm sure. Mmm-hmm. (His boss comes closer and enters the office.) WILL: Okay, Mom, I got to go. Mmm. I got to go. My boss is standing right here, I got to go. I love you, too! (He hangs up, looks up sheepishly at his boss.) WILL: I'm sorry. BOSS: There's still no quote in here from Daniel Hecht's fiancee. WILL: Yeah, I know, I didn't get the quote yet. BOSS: Will, we can't keep having this conversation. WILL: June, listen to me, this is very difficult for me. BOSS: We have quotes from deceased relatives. WILL: Can you just stop for a second? No, no, I'm not going to do this story. BOSS: Excuse me? WILL: I'm not going to run this story. I'm not going to do the piece. BOSS: You pushed me to let you pursue this. WILL: I know. BOSS: And then you convinced me that there was a connection between these two deaths! WILL: I know, I know! I still think something terrible happened. June, I told you this before, if running this story's going to hurt my friend, I don't want to do it. BOSS: You still haven't told her you're working on this, have you? (He looks away.) BOSS: Like I said, you either finish this, or I will put another writer on it. You tell her and get the quote. This goes to bed tomorrow, ten o'clock. (Sydney's house. Will knocks.) WILL: It's me. SYDNEY: It's open. (She sits at the counter, typing on a laptop. Will walks in.) SYDNEY: Hey, Will. WILL: Hey. (rubs her arm) SYDNEY: Hey. WILL: What's the paper on? (He picks up a book that was sitting near Sydney and opens it.) SYDNEY: It's a redo. Professor said it didn't have any soul, so I'm writing a paper with soul. It's got lots of soul! WILL: (reading from book) "Laura, all my love forever and a day, Jack." That's not, like, your dad Jack, is it? SYDNEY: Yeah. WILL: Wow. That's uncharateristically sweet of him. SYDNEY: I know. He actually has a heart, which I'm learning little by little. He bought all these for my mom. WILL: Oh. Oh, I got your message. You're going on another trip? That's, like, what's that? Seven this month? The bank ever going to let up? (He gets himself something to drink. Sydney thinks.) WILL: What's up? SYDNEY: There's this situation at work. Just... some money is missing from petty cash, and it looks like there might be a formal inquiry. WILL: They don't suspect you, do they? SYDNEY: No, but it looks like they're going to give us all lie detector tests, which is just... WILL: Can I make a suggestion, just for, like, the eight millionth time? Why don't you just quit your job? I mean, you can get a job anywhere. I don't know, I just... I just think it's weird. SYDNEY: I know... (She starts playing with her engagement ring. Will notices. She shows him.) SYDNEY: I still wear this... WILL: (quietly) I know. (Her phone rings.) SYDNEY: Hello? VOICE: Joey's Pizza? SYDNEY: Wrong number. (She hangs up and smiles at Will.) SYDNEY: What are you doing here? WILL: I just, uh, came by to say hi. SYDNEY: Hi. WILL: (quietly) Hi. (Self-storage facility. Vaughn sits at a table where a computer is hooked up. Sydney has a few electrodes on her head.) VAUGHN: Have you ever had unauthorized contact with members of any intelligence agency besides SD-6? SYDNEY: No. (The computer starts beeping and reads fifty-one.) VAUGHN: Okay, um, again, you have to stay under thirty. This test measures the blood flow to the emotional part of your brain. Now, if you want to divert the blood, you have to engage the reasoning center-- SYDNEY: I'm trying! VAUGHN: You're reacting emotionally! SYDNEY: It's not like there's a switch you can flick! VAUGHN: You just have to split your focus. SYDNEY: Maybe that's the problem. Maybe I've split my focus already. C.I.A., SD-6, and school, my friends... VAUGHN: Sydney, you can do this. You have to. Have you ever had unauthorized contact with members of any intelligence agency besides SD-6? SYDNEY: No. (Twenty-eight and descending.) VAUGHN: Better. (She takes a deep breath.) VAUGHN: Are you romantically interested in anyone? (Sydney gives him a look.) VAUGHN: Could be a question. SYDNEY: No, I'm not. (Fifty-six.) VAUGHN: Interesting. SYDNEY: Wait, ask me that again. VAUGHN: No, I don't have to. We have our answer right here. That's very good. Moving on. SYDNEY: Hey. (He looks.) SYDNEY: If this were for real, I'd be dead by now, wouldn't I? VAUGHN: Hey, we're just getting started here, okay? [SCENE_BREAK] (Positano. Sydney, wearing a backpack and carrying a suitcase, walks into a building. She goes to the elevator and goes up. She steps off and walks down a hall, knocks at a door. An old man opens the peephole.) SYDNEY: Signor Donato? (speaking Italian) DONATO: (speaking Italian) SYDNEY: Signor Donato, per favore. (Sydney talks to him and mentions Rambaldi and puts the case down. He opens the door. She shows him the clock. He can't believe his eyes, and lets her in.) DONATO: You are American? SYDNEY: Yes. DONATO: Only an American would come to my door without telephoning. (SD-6. Jack walks up to a young man sitting at the phones.) JACK: Seth, can you get in touch with my contact at the airlines? I need to put a back trace on a passenger manifest. I'll be in my office. (Seth nods and picks up the phone, starts dialing.) (Will's newspaper. He meets with his boss.) BOSS: You ever seen the passenger manifest for Flight 816? WILL: No, my guy at the airport told me over the phone. He was going to fax it to me. BOSS: Seat 11A -- Daniel Hecht. Look up seat 11B. WILL: Yeah, it was Kate Jones, I know. BOSS: Look at it. (Will looks at the manifest.) WILL: Zachary Cohen? BOSS: There was no Kate Jones booked on that flight. WILL: Wait, I don't understand. BOSS: I don't understand either, but it seems there's no longer a single fact to support your theory that someone's covering up Daniel Hecht's murder. WILL: What about Eloise Kurtz? BOSS: A woman who someone hires to tell you that she's Kate Jones so you will stop looking for the real Kate Jones. WILL: Yeah, that's right. BOSS: Well, I hate to be insensitive, but she's dead. WILL: Well, I had my notes from my interview with her. BOSS: You have no recording. WILL: Oh, hey, what about the video blackout the night of Danny's murder? BOSS: You really want to try to build a case on lack of photographic evidence? And you put Jenny down as your fact-checker, and when we asked her, she said she didn't make a single call! WILL: No, that's right. That's because she didn't. I was doing her a favor. She does a lot of work for me, and I was just giving her a research credit! It was like a gift. BOSS: It was like a lie! WILL: Yes, it was a lie! It was a kind lie! BOSS: And on the eve of your first front-page story, you suddenly get cold feet. WILL: What are you saying? What are you saying? I made this whole thing up? Look, I swear to God, the only reason I didn't want this story to run is 'cause I don't want to hurt Sydney Bristow. That's it. BOSS: You're a talented writer, Will. But I promise you, if anything like this happens again, the only thing you'll be inventing are facts on your resume. (Positano. Sydney sits facing the window, across from Donato. He looks at the clock.) DONATO: The first Giovanni Donato. His timepieces were miracles of precision. Kings and queens offered him vast riches if only he would design clocks for them. He refused. But, he did tmake one exception. SYDNEY: For Rambaldi. DONATO: Mmm. SYDNEY: Why? DONATO: Rambaldi made him a promise. SYDNEY: What did he promise? DONATO: Rambaldi promised him he would live an impossibly long life. He even revealed to him when he would die. SYDNEY: Was he right? DONATO: Of course. (Sydney notices the symbol on the clock.) SYDNEY: This symbol on the front. What does it mean? DONATO: The magnific order of Rambaldi. Rambaldi's most loyal followers entrusted with safeguarding his creations. Sadly, like miost things that once were pure, criminals now use this symbol to infiltrate the order. (Downstairs, Ana and two men enter the building. The two men run up the stairs. A sniper shooter goes up to the roof on an adjacent building. He points the rifle right at Sydney. Ana hits the button on the elevator to go up, and we see her tattoo on her hand -- .) SYDNEY: What about this date? DONATO: It must have meant something to Rambaldi. The clock was built from one of his designs. He never did tell me what it meant. SYDNEY: What did you say? DONATO: Oh, uh, my mother. My mother never told me. I don't think she knew. There's still one piece missing I don't have. SYDNEY: So, it won't work? DONATO: It will tell time, if that's what you mean. (He starts the clock, and stares at her. The sniper from the building next door looks.) SNIPER: The clock is finished. I've got Bristow in my sight. (Ana is on the elevator.) ANA: The the shot whenever you have it. (In Donato's place.) SYDNEY: Mr. Donato, what was Rambaldi working on? DONATO: The clock is fixed now. It's over. (The sniper points at Sydney, but Donato stands and blocks the shot. He is shot instead of Sydney, and his body falls to the ground. Bullets riddle the office. Sydney, with blood on her face, falls to the ground as well and sees Donato is dead. She grabs the clock and runs out. She goes to the elevator, but sees Ana getting off. She runs downstairs to see the two goons are there. She runs upstairs. Ana gets back in the elevator and hits the up button. Sydney runs up the stairs. Ana is going upstairs right alongside. The goons are on Sydney's tail. She runs up the stirs and gets to the roof. She takes a hook out of her backpack, clasps it onto the railing. Ana and her goons shoot at Sydney. The hook is connected to a rope. Sydney jumps off the building and lands on the ground. She unhooks the rope from her backpack with the clock in her hand and starts running. They shoot at her.) (At Sydney's house, she flops down on the couch and sighs.) SYDNEY: Ahhh yeah... FRANCIE: Hey, welcome back. SYDNEY: Thanks. (Sydney lifts her legs so Francie can sit. Sydney puts her legs on her, stretching out.) FRANCIE: Okay, so, the good news is, I went by your professor's office to drop off the paper but he wasn't in, so the secretary wanted me to leave it with her, only remember sophomore year? So, I waited around and handed it to him personally. SYDNEY: Thank you, Francie. Was there bad news? FRANCIE: Yeah. I was making lemonade and I spilled it all over your mom's book. (She takes it out and gives it to Sydney.) FRANCIE: And I am so sorry, and I think it's going to be fine, it's all dry... SYDNEY: It's okay, don't worry. It doesn't matter. Thank you for handing in the paper. FRANCIE: You're welcome. (That night, in bed, Sydney drinks wine and reads her mother's book that Francie spilled the lemonade on. She turns a page and sees something. At the edge of the page, there are some faint writing. She puts it up to the light, then up to a candle.) (Self-storage. More fun testing.) VAUGHN: Have you ever leaked information about SD-6 to other intelligence agencies? SYDNEY: No. (Twenty-four.) VAUGHN: Are you a double agent? SYDNEY: No. But my father is. VAUGHN: I'm sure he'd be thrilled if you gave Dreyer that answer. SYDNEY: Not now for the C.I.A.; twenty years ago for the KGB. My mother was a teacher, my father used to buy her books-- VAUGHN: Sydney-- SYDNEY: First editions, one a month, shipped from a book store they discovered on a trip to Prague. VAUGHN: Sydney, but we really need to-- SYDNEY: Listen to me! Look, I thought it was the sweetest thing -- romantic, a side of him that died when she did. But last night, I discovered codes hidden inside those books! It's obviously how the KGB was sending him messages. VAUGHN: No, what kind of codes? SYDNEY: One-time pads. Blocks of cipher-text written in sets of five cyrillic letters. VAUGHN: Staple of the KGB. SYDNEY: Yeah. VAUGHN: All right, we'll deal with that, and I want to see those books. But right now, you still have Dreyer's test coming up and your life still depends on how well you do. (Will sits at his desk, and goes through the file on Danny. He closes it and puts it away in his desk drawer. His phone rings.) WILL: Hello, this is Will. MIKE: Hey, Will. It's Mike. WILL: Hey, Mike, how you doing? MIKE: Okay. Your friend Eloise brought her car in. WILL: Eloise Kurtz? MIKE: Yeah, that's her. She never picked it up, but she told me she needed it right away. WILL: She did? MIKE: Yeah. So, do you know where she is? WILL: Hey, you mind if I come down there and take a look at her car? MIKE: No, no, come down to the shop. You know where we are. (Auto shop. Will sits inside Eloise's car. He looks around, picks up a bottle of pills, examines it. His cell rings.) WILL: Will Tippin. BOSS: How kiss-ass of you. (Will leans over to the glove compartment, and sticks his hand in the Kleenex box. Inside is a flower lapel pin.) WILL: What? BOSS: The stargazer lilies and the card. "I didn't make up a single fact." WILL: Well, I didn't. I thought you knew me well enough to know I didn't by now. BOSS: I am calling to clarify that you are on the soil erosion story, and I don't want you to waste another minute on Kate Jones. Are we clear? (Will puts the pin up to the mouthpiece on his phone. He gets an electronic feedback sound.) WILL: Yeah. We're clear. (Briefing with Sloane, Marshall, Sydney and Dixon at SD-6.) SLOANE: As you know for some time now, we have been operating under the assumption that the sume of Rambaldi's inventions are greater than the parts. This clock is evidence of that. (He motions to Marshall. Very excited -- more so than usual, Marshall stands.) MARSHALL: Thank you. Hi. All right, now, who here remembers this? (He holds up the golden circle.) SYDNEY: The golden sun I got from the church in Malaga. MARSHALL: That's right, the polymer. If you look at it closely, hundreds of tiny imperfections. Air bubbles. Nothing unusual, right? But what is unusual is this. (He slides the sun into the ancient clock. The polymer acts like a background for the arms of the clock.) MARSHALL: Now, I realized if you set this to exactly 12:22, and 1/22... then this happens. (Dixon, more than intrigued, stands up and comes closer. The clock stops ticking. Marshall holds a giant magnifying glass and hands it to Sydney.) MARSHALL: Ms. Bristow, ladies first. (She holds up the glass and sees little sparkles of light in the golden polymer.) SYDNEY: What is that? MARSHALL: It's a star chart. A snapshot of the sky taken from one specific place on earth at one specific moment in time. (Jack enters.) JACK: Sorry I'm late. DIXON: Sort of like an ancient GPS system. MARSHALL: Well, yeah, if you have the date and the time that the snapshot was taken. See, that's the genius. See, these two things separately? Nothing, nothing at all. But you put them together and... that sound that you're--you know that boom? That's my mind blowing. SLOANE: Now, if we assume that star chart refers to the date on the back of the clock: August 16, 1523 at 12:22AM GMT, then the only spot on earth with that exact view of the stars is the southern slope of Mt. Aconcagua on the Chile/Argentina border. DIXON: "X" marks the spot. So, we think Rambaldi stored something there. SLOANE: Possibly. Your mission is to find out. Marshall will fill you in on the op tech. Oh, and Sydney? Before you head off, I want you to go down to Psych and see Carl Dreyer. (Sloane leaves. Sydney makes eye contact with her father.) (Psych room. Dreyer sits at a desk, Sydney sits in a high-back chair that has a cover over her ears and temples.) DREYER: What is your name? SYDNEY: Sydney Bristow. DREYER: What color are your eyes? SYDNEY: Brown. DREYER: Are you sitting down? SYDNEY: Yes. DREYER: Are you an agent of SD-6? SYDNEY: Yes. DREYER: Are you a double agent? SYDNEY: No. (Blood clinic van. Inside, Sydney sits up on the counter with her legs crossed under her. She stares at nothing and twists her engagement ring on her finger. Vaughn stands nearby.) VAUGHN: This is a still camera with a digital signal uplinked to a geosynchronous keyhole satellite. So, whatever's in Argentina, we won't have to wait for the pictures. SYDNEY: Is there a transmission window? VAUGHN: Uh, no, it's geosynchronous orbit. Just point and click. SYDNEY: Yeah... VAUGHN: You seem a little distracted. What, is it the test? SYDNEY: I'm not sure I passed. And they're still watching me. It took me twenty minutes to shake the guy they had tailing me. VAUGHN: Well, they wouldn't be sending you on a mission if you failed. SYDNEY: I don't think they know the results yet. VAUGHN: Look, I know how much you want to do this -- take down SD-6 -- but your life is more important. So, if you really think you failed the test, we have a plan in place to take you out. A protection program. SYDNEY: No. I can't do it. Live in hiding. Not a chance. VAUGHN: Good luck in Argentina. (Argentina. In the Andes, a Hummer comes to a stop and Sydney and Dixon climb out.) SYDNEY: Six-mile trek and we should be there. DIXON: There are easier jobs than this. SYDNEY: God, no kidding! DIXON: You know, I've been meaning to tell you something. I'm proud of you. SYDNEY: What? Of me? DIXON: Yeah. SYDNEY: Why? DIXON: Well, I've worked with a lot of people. You make it look easy. The thing I admire most is your courage. (They put their backpacks on.) SYDNEY: My courage? DIXON: After what happened with Danny, the way you came back. Your commitment to the job. And I know what we do isn't for ourselves, it's for the good of the country. Still, uh... thanks. (In a room at the newspaper, Will draws the window blinds. A geeky guy, heretofore known as GEEK, inspects the flower pin.) WILL: So, you're saying it's a bug? GEEK: No, no, no, I'm saying it's a tarantula. This thing hops channels so fast, you could never intercept a transmission. My guess is it's encrypted to boot. WILL: Where can you buy this? GEEK: Buy this? You can't. This is government issue. WILL: Government? GEEK: My sister's husband is Secret Service. His transmitter couldn't touch this. If you ask me, I'd say it's intelligence. What's the frequency, Kenneth? Ha ha ha! (Dixon and Sydney hike, trying to find the Rambaldi spot.) DIXON: What do you think this Rambaldi guy is all about? SYDNEY: I wish we knew already. I can think of about a thousand places I'd rather be right now. (Dixon laughs.) SYDNEY: Hey, I think we're almost at our waypoint. 32.42 by 70.01. DIXON: What the hell are we doing here? SYDNEY: I don't know. It feels like a wild goose chase. DIXON: Aw, damn it. I can't get a line of sight to the satellite. It's a low-earth orbit. We're blocked by the mountains. SYDNEY: Hey, give me a hand here. (Her handheld monitor starts beeping. They start to dig. They move the ground to see a lid with the Rambaldi symbol . Sydney lifts the lid with Dixon's help and almost falls in. He helps her up. They look and see that it's a big black hole.) SYDNEY: I'm going in. DIXON: All right. I'll hike out until I can acquire the satellite. I'll call for support. Syd, be careful. (She nods, takes a flashlight and starts climbing down. She goes down the ladder that never seems to end. She finally reaches the bottom of this underground cave. She looks around with the help of her flashlight and sees nothing, until she notices a lid imbedded into the rock. It has the symbol on it. After much grunting, she gets it open and reaches inside. A leather journal is found, with the symbol on the cover. Sydney opens it and sees designs and writing. She picks up her walkie-talkie.) SYDNEY: Dixon, I found it! It's Rambaldi's journal, I found it! (She starts taking pictures for the C.I.A. -- turning the page and clicking pictures. Suddenly, Dixon's hushed voice crackles over the walkie-talkie.) DIXON: Sydney, I don't know how they found us... K-Directorate... SYDNEY: Dixon? DIXON: They're here! Ana's here! Sydney, get out of there! Now! (Shots are heard.) SYDNEY: Dixon, do you copy? Dixon, do you copy? Do you copy? (SD-6. Psych room. Sloane enters.) SLOANE: Have you finished with Sydney's results? DREYER: I think we've found our mole. (Sydney, with the journal, runs down the cave to go back to the ladder to find Dixon. About a foot away from the ladder, she stops dead in her tracks to see Ana, just having finished climbing down the ladder, pointing a gun at Sydney.) SYDNEY: What did you do to Dixon? ANA: Put the book down. (Sydney throws the book at her. She kicks the gun away and kicks Ana in the back. Ana punches her three times. Sydney runs and kicks Ana. Ana grabs the gun and shoots Sydney three times. Sydney is sprawled out on the floor, not moving. Ana takes the journal, puts it in her canvas bag, and starts up the ladder. She takes one last look at Sydney, and moves up the ladder quickly. Sydney rolls over. She unbuttons her shirt to see the bullets lodged into a bulletproof vest. She sees Ana making her way up the ladder and starts up herself. Ana climbs the ladder, Sydney behind her. Ana falls a little, but keeps going. The bag gets caught on one of the ropes, giving Sydney a few moments to catch up. They start kicking each other. Sydney tries grabbing the bag off her shoulder. Ana kicks her in the face. Sydney grabs the bag again, but Ana elbows Sydney in the face. Sydney grabs for Ana's foot, but Ana kicks her off the ladder. Sydney falls, and falls, and falls... right down to the bottom of the cave.) SYDNEY: AAAAHHHHHHH!
Time Will Tell