Airdate: Wednesday.06.April.2005
Nightingale

Vaughn wakes up from a nightmare. Troubled, he tells Sydney that they should
stop pursuing his father's past. Syd insists that they continue.

In a Siberian nuclear facility, two men lock an unconscious prisoner into a
test chamber, while a scientist observes behind glass. When the prisoner
wakes up, he realizes that he's the subject of a gruesome experiment. His
flesh melts and he dies screaming.

Jack agrees to Syd's request for clearance on files relating to Vaughn's
father. Starting with one word - Nightingale - from Bill Vaughn's journal,
Syd discovers its connection to Dr. Josef Vlachko. She also finds that he's
currently working with Hans Dietrich, a money launderer involved in weapons
sales who funneled over a million euros to an account labeled Nightingale.
Syd presses on with the search.

A wary Sloane asks Jack how much Sydney and Vaughn know about Project
Nightingale. Jack suggests that they tacitly let the pair continue the search.

In a rogue operation, Syd and Vaughn go to Dietrich's beer hall in Munich.
Dressed as a beer maid, Sydney charms Dietrich. Then they go back to his
private office where she beats him and rips out the hard drive from his
computer. As guards arrive, Syd and Vaughn fight their way out.

Back in Los Angeles, Vaughn secretly meets with a mysterious man named
Roberts, who knows about their "trip" to Munich. Roberts says he'll give
Vaughn info about his father in exchange for the transformer coil from
Project Nightingale. Vaughn agrees, though he doesn't yet know what
Nightingale is. Before he leaves, Roberts gives him his contact information
and the name "Philip Burke" as a lead.

Jack invites Sydney out for dinner to learn more about their acquired intel.
Sydney says that Vlachko is running Project Nightingale in an abandoned
nuclear plant and using humans as test subjects for experiments. Jack tries
to convince Sydney to bring this intel to APO.

Sloane tells Jack that due to Vlachko's ties with Elena Derevko, he needs to
send a strike team to Siberia. Jack says they should wait for Sydney to
willfully bring this to APO. Once she does, Jack will join the mission so
he can interrogate Vlachko without Syd and Vaughn's knowledge. Sloane
advises Jack to eliminate Vlachko because he can alert Elena about their
agenda-or worse, talk to Sydney.

Vaughn tells Sydney about Philip Burke: he was killed the same day that Bill
Vaughn was supposedly killed, and his dental records are identical to Bill
Vaughn's. Vaughn also says that he met with Roberts, who wants the
transformer coil. Syd suggests they bring this operation to APO, then
acquire the coil through a rogue countermission. After they report to APO,
Jack says that he'll join them in the retrieval of the transformer coil.

After infiltrating the Siberian nuclear facility, Jack shuts down security
while Vaughn and Sydney run toward the test chamber. Sydney enters the
chamber to retrieve the coil inside the nuclear reactor's containment
shield. A guard arrives and shoots at Vaughn, destroying the control panel
in the process. Syd is trapped inside as the nuclear reactor starts
counting down. After Vaughn's failed attempts to stop the reactor, Marshall
says another way to stop this is through the removal of fuel rods from the core.

Meanwhile, Jack finds and interrogates Vlachko. Upon hearing that Sydney's
life is in danger, Jack shoots Vlahcko and heads toward the nuclear core to
remove the fuel rods. Marshall advises Jack against this as he tries his
best to bypass the system.

Suddenly, the nuclear reactor shuts down. Syd walks out the chamber and
hands the coil to Vaughn. After they kiss, Vaughn punches Sydney and runs
away with the coil as Syd watches him go. Sydney then goes to Jack and
tells him that Vaughn took the coil from her.

Jack and Sloane discuss Sydney and Vaughn's deceit. Later, Marshall realizes
that Jack shut down the reactor himself. Jack tells Marshall that his
daughter's life depended on it and demands that his actions remain a secret.